Tech-Bros Being Simply Weird: Mark Zuckerberg & the Bull of the Borgias Edition

Mark Zuckerberg at Sinigaglia: what did he mean by "either Zuck or nothing"?...

Mark Zuckerberg at Sinigallia: what did he mean by "either Zuck or nothing"?...

Follow Mark Zuckerberg’s Latin “either Zuck or nothing” T-shirt slogan back to its beginning and you get a reference not to Roman proto-emperor Julius Caesar but rather to a guy who strangled five of his sub-commanders at a “reconciliation” meeting…

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“Keep rolling double-or-nothing until you reach your goals or flame out”: that is how most people interpreted Mark Zuckerberg’s Mark Amiri-designed T-shirt with the slogan “AUT ZUCK AUT NIHIL”—EITHER ZUCK OR NOTHING: we are going to go all-out to “dominate the future of human communication”, with none of this “prudent bet” or “conserving capital” or “Kelly Criterion” BS. But when I heard about that T-shirt slogan, I sat bolt-upright, for I was thinking about a small town with an old castle and a population of 50,000 on the Adriatic coast of Italy, a small town called Sinigaglia…

And today I am pushed to get this off my chest, as I see that Ed Zitron is profoundly unhappy with the coverage of Zuckerberg at the Facebook developer confidence.

Ed is, understandably, distressed at how easily Mark Zuckerberg turned Washington Post reporters Nitasha Tiku and Naomi Nix into employees of his PR department. But I sat bolt-upright for a different reason. I saw one extra thing that might be relatively important here for understanding Zuckerberg. It is a thing that Zitron and the Post reporters have missed. But I am almost sure that Zuckerberg has not missed this. At least, he has not missed it if anybody on his staff is even 1% on the ball.

That T-shirt Zuckerberg showed up in with the slogan “aut Zuck aut nihil”—either Zuck or nothing. That is indeed a riff on the slogan “aut Cæsar aut nihil”—either Cæsar or nothing.

But that slogan is not a classical-Roman reference. It is not a direct reference to the Imperator C. Iulius Cæsar hmself.

It is, rather, an Italian Renaissance reference.

“Aut Cæsar aut nihil” was the personal motto of Cesare Borgia, 1475-1507:

• illegitimate son of Rodrigo Borgia who became Pope Alexander VI,

• sometime Cardinal of the Roman Church,

• Duke of Romagna,

• Duke of Valentinois,

• perhaps the most Machiavellian in the bad sense of all of the princelings of the Italian Renaissance.

Of all of Cesare Borgia’s many deeds, he is most famous for “the Magnificent Deceit”. In 1503 he held a “reconciliation” meeting at Sinigaglia with his former commanders Vitellozzo Vitelli, Oliverotto da Fermo, Paolo Orsini, Francesco Orsini, and Orsino Orsini. How did this meeting go? Borgia had them all strangled.

Cesare is second best-known for his treatment of his henchman Ramirro de Orco: Orco had been given the task of brutally establishing Borgia control of Cesena. In the process de Orco had, of course, made many enemiesd. He had killed many. And they had relatives. So, as Niccolo Machiavelli tells the story, Cesare Borgia:

took Ramirro, and one morning caused him to be executed and left on the piazza at Cesena with the block and a bloody knife at his side. The barbarity of this spectacle caused the people [of Cesena] to be at once satisfied and dismayed…

The T-shirt does not sort of reference Imperator C. Iulius Cæsar. It, rather, references—emulates?—someone with many fewer virtues, someone much more vicious, and someone with much less respect for normal standards of human behavior.

Here is Ed:

Ed Zitron: You Can’t Be Friends with the Rock Stars: ‘All Mark Zuckerberg has to do to make [all] that [bad stuff] go away is wear a shirt that sort of references Julius Caesar for the Washington Post to say that he "has the swagger of a Roman emperor" <https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/10/04/mark-zuckerberg-transformation-meta-ceo-facebook/?ref=wheresyoured.at>, and publish a glossy feature about Zuckerberg's new "bro-ified" look that asserts he has “raised his stock among start-up founders as Silicon Valley shifts to the right”… transformed himself from “a dorky, democracy-destroying CEO into a dripped-out, jacked AI accelerationist in the eyes of potential Meta recruits”…. The Post's piece… continually returns to the tropes of Zuckerberg being “unapologetic” for unspecific acts, all while actively helping refurbish his image as somebody unbound by consequence or responsibility… <https://www.wheresyoured.at/rockstars/>

Indeed. Ed, if anything, understates the case:

Nitasha Tiku & Naomi Nix: Inside the bro-ification of Mark Zuckerberg: ‘Mark Zuckerberg strode onstage at Meta's annual developer conference last week with all the swagger of a Roman emperor—that is, if Julius Caesar had a thing for customized statement tees… designer shirt… "AUT ZUCK AUT NIHIL," a riff on a Latin phrase meaning "a Caesar or nothing"—a nod to the conquering general's unbridled ambition…. Printing ancient battle cries on Italian cotton may be an innocuous flex, but it's part of a transformation that has quietly remade Zuckerberg's public image…. His conference shirt appeared to be part of a series Zuckerberg created with menswear designer Mike Amiri, showcasing what the CEO has called his “favorite classical sayings.”…. Zuckerberg's new aesthetic and acerbic asides have played well on the podcast circuit and onstage, helping the 40-year-old billionaire transform himself…. “I don't apologize anymore”, Zuckerberg quipped… eliciting laughter…. “We've noticed”, responded one of the hosts. Meta declined to comment. That unapologetic stance has also won over Silicon Valley insiders… <https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/10/04/mark-zuckerberg-transformation-meta-ceo-facebook/>

My t-shirt slogan is a riff on the personal slogan of a guy who would strangle his own (ex-)henchman at a “reconciliation” meeting—that is a joke.

But it also isn’t a joke, is it?

Playing games of “is he serious”? and “what does that mean?” is a way of interacting with the world, which Henry Farrell taught me to think about in terms of “constructive ambiguity” and “robust action”:

Henry Farrell: Kissing the Ring: ‘Padgett and Ansell’s description of how Cosimo de Medici used ‘robust action’ and constructive ambiguity about his ultimate goals to manipulate those around him…. Multivocality can plausibly take a variety of different forms. The Renaissance form is to adopt a strategy of ‘whatever you say, say nothing,’ leaving it for others to interpret your ambiguous actions as they will, forcing them to commit while you remain unbounded…. Make everyone pay attention to you, and condition their actions on you, without you having to condition their actions on them…. The successful practitioner dominates the public space and public argument as everyone tries to interpret what the hell you have done… instability, frequent policy change, palace intrigues… an ever shifting spider web of political relations… <https://crookedtimber.org/2016/11/20/kissing-the-ring/>

Confronted with anyone engaging in these kinds of “constructive ambiguity” and “robust action” games, you have to recognize the multiple layers of meaning here:

• the exoteric meaning,

• things that people might think are the exoteric meaning,

• the esoteric meaning, and

• the super-esoteric meaning.

And you have to recognize that the players of these games does not intend any single one of these meanings. They intend them all.

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References:

• Bradford, Sarah. 1976. Cesare Borgia: His Life and Times. New York: Macmillan. <https://archive.org/details/cesareborgiahisl0000brad>.

• Farrell, Henry. 2016. "Kissing the Ring." Crooked Timber, November 20. <https://crookedtimber.org/2016/11/20/kissing-the-ring/>.

• Machiavelli, Niccolò. 1532. The Prince. Trans. W. K. Marriott. <https://archive.org/details/theprince_202001>.

• Padgett, John F., & Christopher K. Ansell. 1993. "Robust Action and the Rise of the Medici, 1400-1434." American Journal of Sociology. 98:6 (May), pp. 1259-1319. <https://research.amanote.com/publication/N6_1AnQBKQvf0Bhidnyp/robust-action-and-the-rise-of-the-medici-1400-1434>.

• Tiku, Nitasha, & Naomi Nix. 2024. "Inside the Bro-ification of Mark Zuckerberg." The Washington Post, October 4, 2024. Accessed October 19, 2024. <https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/10/04/mark-zuckerberg-transformation-meta-ceo-facebook/>.

• Zitron, Ed. 2024. "You Can’t Be Friends with the Rock Stars." Where’s Your Ed At? October 14. https://www.wheresyoured.at/rockstars/.

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