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"Here is what we know about the city so far: It will be beautiful. Also, it will restore Western civilization, through something called an “acceleration zone,” described on the Praxis website as a special economic zone that will “accelerate technological progress” in areas like AI, biotech, and energy. To do so, Praxis has raised about a half billion dollars from the likes of Sam Altman’s Apollo Projects, Shervin Pishevar, Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss through Winklevoss Capitol, and built an online community of nearly 89,000 prospective citizens. These citizens are representative of the new right-leaning tech aristocracy: people working for defense tech companies like Anduril and Palantir, three DOGE employees, and members of the influential venture fund Andreessen Horowitz.
Brown has no shortage of ideas about how Praxis will save Western civilization, a problem he first became fascinated with while interning at Bill Ackman’s hedge fund, Pershing Square, which recently backed Howard Hughes Holdings, a company developing master-planned communities like Summerlin, Nevada, and the Woodlands, Texas. But it wasn’t until the election of Joe Biden in 2020 that Brown realized that America was, as he puts it, becoming “a wasteland,” helmed by a “king in a coma.” To rescue it, Brown decided to build a city founded on Western values, replete with Gothic architecture and filled with a citizenry that upholds classical values and enjoys reading books like The Odyssey.
Vandenberg is a 100,000-acre US Space Force base in Santa Barbara County that is home to nearly 3,000 military personnel and their families. These are people who, according to Brown, are “super mission driven” and “technologically competent.” Brown believes these people need something, and what they need is mission expansion. “This is a story about California,” Brown says, his brow furrowed. “It’s also a story about America. At the highest level, it’s about building the arsenal of democracy so that if we get into a conflict with a geopolitical rival like China, we can actually compete at parity.”
The idea goes like this: Let the so-called Praxians build a city on federal land in Vandenberg. They will erect facilities, housing, and offices. They will attract tech talent from nearby Los Angeles and San Francisco. With their newfound city, they will help revitalize American manufacturing. They will build drones and ships and space infrastructure. In doing so, Vandenberg will become the new American industrial base and a proud emblem of Western prowess."
Vanity Fair