02-11-2017, 01:34 PM
This article was posted on the Quartz website this past week: "What Steve Bannon Really Wants"
After having watched Bannon's documentary Generation Zero and having pored over his past public comments, I find much cognitive dissonance in Bannonism. For example, he has said that "enlightened capitalism" saved America from communism and fascism in the 1930s. That's true enough, if by "enlightened capitalism" he meant an American capitalism incorporating social welfare. But Bannon attributes our current troubles to our unmooring from capitalism, among other failings. How, then, would he characterize the New Deal policies of FDR that saved capitalism from itself, if not as social democracy? FDR's strident political opponents went much further than that, describing the New Deal as outright socialism. Bannon's philosophy just doesn't hang together, and that worries me far more than any fascism that so many on the left ascribe to his worldview.
I think an in-depth interview of Bannon by the print or broadcast media would benefit the public at large, maybe even allay some of the darkest fears that many people have about him. Inquiring minds want to know, is Steve Bannon the political strategist the same person as Steve Bannon the former Breitbart propagandist? (Putting "softball" questions to him won't get it done.)
The Quartz article observes that--
There are a few loose ends in Bannon’s thinking—comments that seem consequential, but are vague or don’t fit clearly into any bigger vision.
In both his public comments and documentary, Bannon oversimplifies complex events, like the Crash of 2008, which Bannon seems to attribute to "white guilt." Worse, Bannon often gets history very wrong, as in his justification for prohibiting Muslim immigrants from entering Europe and the US: “These are not people with thousands of years of democracy in their DNA coming up here.”
Thousands of years? Was European feudalism democratic? Hmm...
Given the events of the past fortnight, it would be hard to disagree with Quartz's assessment of Bannon's political influence:
Even before he took charge of Trump’s campaign, in Aug. 2016, Bannon’s philosophies pervaded its rhetoric. If there was any question about the role his views would play in the Trump administration, the last two weeks have made it clear: The president’s leadership hangs from the scaffolding of Bannon’s worldview.
You can read further at this link: https://qz.com/898134/what-steve-bannon-really-wants/
After having watched Bannon's documentary Generation Zero and having pored over his past public comments, I find much cognitive dissonance in Bannonism. For example, he has said that "enlightened capitalism" saved America from communism and fascism in the 1930s. That's true enough, if by "enlightened capitalism" he meant an American capitalism incorporating social welfare. But Bannon attributes our current troubles to our unmooring from capitalism, among other failings. How, then, would he characterize the New Deal policies of FDR that saved capitalism from itself, if not as social democracy? FDR's strident political opponents went much further than that, describing the New Deal as outright socialism. Bannon's philosophy just doesn't hang together, and that worries me far more than any fascism that so many on the left ascribe to his worldview.
I think an in-depth interview of Bannon by the print or broadcast media would benefit the public at large, maybe even allay some of the darkest fears that many people have about him. Inquiring minds want to know, is Steve Bannon the political strategist the same person as Steve Bannon the former Breitbart propagandist? (Putting "softball" questions to him won't get it done.)
The Quartz article observes that--
There are a few loose ends in Bannon’s thinking—comments that seem consequential, but are vague or don’t fit clearly into any bigger vision.
In both his public comments and documentary, Bannon oversimplifies complex events, like the Crash of 2008, which Bannon seems to attribute to "white guilt." Worse, Bannon often gets history very wrong, as in his justification for prohibiting Muslim immigrants from entering Europe and the US: “These are not people with thousands of years of democracy in their DNA coming up here.”
Thousands of years? Was European feudalism democratic? Hmm...
Given the events of the past fortnight, it would be hard to disagree with Quartz's assessment of Bannon's political influence:
Even before he took charge of Trump’s campaign, in Aug. 2016, Bannon’s philosophies pervaded its rhetoric. If there was any question about the role his views would play in the Trump administration, the last two weeks have made it clear: The president’s leadership hangs from the scaffolding of Bannon’s worldview.
You can read further at this link: https://qz.com/898134/what-steve-bannon-really-wants/