We're bringing back the "social club"

The Elysian is modeled after old social clubs. Specifically, one founded by William Morris in 1890 London.

Back then, London was an industrialized hellscape—black soot hovering like clouds, factory workers paid a pittance, capitalism running roughshod over everything beautiful. But Morris imagined a more beautiful future, so, as the founder of his social club, he gathered thinkers around his table and published print pamphlets on the important ideas of his time.

Morris even wrote News from Nowhere—a utopian novel imagining the ideal life in the year 2000. The ideas that came out of that living room, out of his print pamphlets and books, went on to reshape Europe. I think Morris would find London vastly improved from his day.

Much of my life and work might be considered an homage to Morris. I run a media collective that is modeled after his social club—one that publishes print pamphlets and books and hosts salons in my living room. I’m even writing a utopian novel—my own entry into his tradition, left behind for future centuries to enjoy.

The challenges we face today are different. We are at the dawn of a new Gilded Age, a technofeudalism established by the influence of global tech platforms, rising autocracy and power consolidation, geopolitical uncertainty resulting from large superpowers with even larger weapons, and all of it affecting the earth we live on and the communities we live in.

As in Morris’ day, we need to come up with solutions. We need to create a better vision for the future than the one that we’re currently building on autopilot. And we need a place to develop them.

That’s what we do here.

Behind closed doors, we can come up with new ideas. Through pamphlets and books, we can share our best ones. Through online discussions and in-person gatherings, we can debate them—and instead of telling each other “that won’t work,” we can ask “what might?” Together, we can come up with a future worth working toward.

The people already in the room include government leaders at the EU and UN, congressmen and economists, tech founders and cooperative members. They are executives at Stripe, Disney, and Spotify. Academics at MIT, Yale, and Harvard. Journalists at The New York Times and The Economist. Oscar-winning documentary filmmakers. Inventors building AI projects, and nonprofits trying to keep us safe from them.

I’d love to invite you to join us.