Is Pres. Trump the new Mao?

Article

The one book to understand Steve Bannon

Summary

Bannon tells "Axios'" Jonathan Swan that The Revolt of the Elites by Christopher Lasch is one of his favorites for explaining our times.

Quote

"Reading 'The Revolt of the Elites' gives you a deeper appreciation of the populist nationalist movement that propelled Trump to the presidency. It also gives you deeper insight into how Bannon thinks — his disdain for experts and party establishments, his skepticism on multinationals, his commitment to information warfare and the Breitbart comments section, his antipathy toward "globalists" and his particular distrust of the West Coast elite Lasch writes feel more loyalty to Hong Kong and Singapore than they do to "Middle America." Jonathan Swan

Understanding

Swan's article pulls out eight statements from The Revolt of the Elites to suggest how Bannon thinks. While it is a fallacious to assume Lasch's words equal Bannon's beliefs, there are some provocative ideas listed. Here is one -

• "We have become far too accommodating and tolerant for our own good....Compassion has become the human face of contempt...Today we accept double standards — as always, a recipe for second-class citizenship — in the name of humanitarian concern." Christopher Lasch

While that statement seems harsh, it is out of context and I assume the author has good intent, not cruelty, as his motivation. Perhaps we elites do use charity as a way to reinforce our privileged status and maintain the status quo of a society that works very well for us. Perhaps what Lasch and Bannon are calling for is a radical transformation of our class structure to be more egalitarian.

Huh. I used to aspire to the same goal when I was an undergraduate Maoist and admirer of China's Cultural Revolution.

I wonder how far the wealthy, white men in charge of the federal government right now will push that agenda?

Watch your mouth

Article

A Glossary of Far-Right Terms and Memes

Summary

BuzzFeed has assembled a useful list of the jargon and icons that members of the alt-right use in their communications.

Quote

"The Overton Window
A general concept to describe the limits ("window") of what the public finds acceptable. Some pundits have suggested that Trump has shifted the scope of this window, and that things like the "grab her by the pussy" comment would have previously been career-ending for a politician. The alt-right believes it's helping shift the Overton window for the public by making the movement's extreme speech normalized, and in its wake has opened up the path for Trump." 

Understanding

Sometimes I catch myself judging people into categories of those who "get it" versus those who don't. The people who "get it" share my worldview, and one of the primary ways I believe this to be true is through our shared vocabulary, cultural reference points and inside jokes.

Language connects and separates. I sound ridiculous when I throw down popular Millennial slang after looking it up in Urban Dictionary. I used to think I was signaling myself as an LGBTQ ally when I used phrases like,  "That's so gay..." until I realized how it hurt.

Learning the vocabulary and iconography of the alt-right can provide insight. Appropriating their insults into points of pride, e.g. pussy hats, helps deflect the pain.

Snowflakes, let's not minimize the cruelty beneath the surface as their vocabulary becomes commonplace.

The legitimacy filter

Article

The Crisis and the Truth

Summary

The Weekly Standard's editors believe we have a national crisis in Pres. Trump's accusation that he was illegally surveilled by Pres. Obama's administration.

Quote

"It is an institutional and perhaps constitutional crisis when the president of the United States accuses his predecessor of illegally wiretapping him as a candidate--a wiretapping presumably carried out by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, still headed by the director accused by the president of wiretapping him."

Understanding

Dueling conspiracy theories are racing at the speed of tweeting for legitimacy. The liberal narrative is that Pres. Trump wants to distract us from Russian influence on his administration.  Conservatives claim that the wiretapping accusation itself, even without evidence, is sufficient to warrant investigation.

The Weekly Standard's call for transparency is noble and appropriate, but I wonder what evidence any of us will accept that might alter our preconceptions?

We often prefer our opinions to the truth. Once we set our minds on a belief we filter out facts that challenge our mindset and collect data that reinforces our preferred concept.

We are like competing tribes who share the same land but a different language, and each of us is building a wall, tweet by tweet, claim by claim, stone by stone, to protect our enclave.

Winning at all costs is a losing argument

Article

Blue State Blues: The Deliberate Politicization of Intimacy

Summary

Joel B. Pollak claims that Democrats' exploitation of personal relationships threatens our society.

Quote

"Obama told his supporters explicitly to approach their neighbors and “argue with them, and get in their face.” His surrogates took that approach even further. Hollywood celebrity Sarah Silverman encouraged Obama’s Jewish supporters to travel to Florida and tell their ostensibly racist grandparents to vote for him. Later, once Obama was in office, the supposedly non-partisan Rock the Vote organization told young people to withhold sex from partners who refused to support Obamacare."

Understanding

Pollak makes some insightful comments about how social media divides us into camps rather than brings us together. Then he advocates that liberals are to blame and conservatives aren't as guilty.

It looks like he'd rather win his argument than be right. He seized an opportunity to score points for his side rather than bring us to common ground.

I recall the times at work or with loved ones that I've tried, with vehement disregard for decency and righteousness, to win at all costs .  Victory was short-lived when I succeeded. Shame and remorse remained.

Understanding is literally an act of humility and we will have a difficult time standing together if we remain determined to top one another.

The ruling class

Article

James Burnham's Managerial Elite

Summary

The author makes the case for the relevance of an economic analysis from the 50's called managerialism. Managerialism holds that the ascendence of elites into control of the corporate and public sector based on their superior knowledge and network, is the reason for our current political disarray and economic disfunction.

Quote

Conservative polemicists have long presented a caricature of a decadent liberal elite, and liberals have offered a competing caricature of a conservative plutocracy. But few have attempted to understand how these ostensible opponents function as elements of the same elite, or how they have participated in maintaining the broader intellectual, political, and economic status quo.

Understanding

My advanced degree, college administrator role and six-figure income place me in the managerial class. Because our status is derived from our competence, and not our ability to create value, the managerial elite controls the largest share of the pie without necessarily needing to create more berries, flour and sugar for the workers. The baking class will produce the pie for us and all we have to do is pay what we can easily afford.

No wonder their resentment is seething. No wonder they voted against the status quo of both political parties. The pie consuming class looks the same whether we are registered Republican or Democrat. We take whatever we want and leave the baking class to sweep the crumbs away.

Seeing ourselves in the other

Article

Jiminy Cricket! Disney Goes Gay

Summary

Todd Starnes objects to same-sex romance in Disney cartoons and films.

Quote

"But these days everything is about the LGBTQIA agenda. And when it comes to the entertainment industry, nothing is sacred in its quest to indoctrinate American children. Not even Disney."

Understanding

Popular entertainment is like a well-lighted mirror. It dramatizes and exaggerates our reflection. We won't always like what we see.

Starnes' response proclaiming: "everything is about..." and "nothing is sacred" is common human behavior when we feel threatened. For example, the ascendancy of President Trump has caused me to exaggerate fears and worry about dark plots among those who don't share my values.

Starnes is afraid of same-sex love becoming mainstream. He chooses not to imagine how LGBTQIA people feel in the world he holds as normal. Or how I would feel in his home.

We all want to feel like we belong. We all share so much more in common than what distinguishes us.

Responding to Pres. Trump's speech to Congress

Article

"Speaker Paul Ryan: Trump's Speech a Home Run"

Summary

Speaker of the House Paul Ryan says President Trump delivered a bold and optimistic speech.

Quote

“We now have a government unified around a simple, but important principle: Empowering the people—not Washington—is the way to build a better future for our country.”

Understanding

The rhetoric of the left and the right have much in common. Everyone wants the people empowered. Everyone wants a better future for our country. Can we stop there, stay there and begin the conversation from where we agree?

I worry when opponents make the other side the enemy, in Ryan's case "Washington." That's when I distrust their motive for as Gore Vidal said, "It's not enough to win. Others must lose."

Who will lose? I wonder how President Trump's call last night for us to be bold and fearless sounded to the good people who don't feel safe here?