This is really depressing, especially when I look at the broader global trend of normalizing fascist-lite politics around the West. Looking at the previous century, it took 2 world wars and...
This is really depressing, especially when I look at the broader global trend of normalizing fascist-lite politics around the West. Looking at the previous century, it took 2 world wars and millions of dead for people to collectively say: “Oh hey, this type of right-wing, bottom of the barrel, nationalist, reactionary politics is evil, and will no longer be accepted in society.”
What will it take this time to get people to remember this?
I was reading Steve Bannon's wiki page the other day. I've never understood the rationale for a nationalist to travel the world promoting nationalism in other countries. One thing that I found...
I was reading Steve Bannon's wiki page the other day. I've never understood the rationale for a nationalist to travel the world promoting nationalism in other countries. One thing that I found interesting was his apparent obsession with the "Fourth Turning theory". I've never studied political science but this seems like historical and political mysticism to me. I bring this up because it is sort of premised on the idea of a generational short-term memory. Short term in the sense that the experiences of those who understood this lesson of anti-nationalism, despite their best efforts to convey that lesson to the younger generations, dies with them.
There are people such as Bannon who understand this phenomenon and decide to wield it for their own purposes rather than viewing it as a tragedy or making an effort to educate others about the dangers of nationalism.
I think this is an example of a global loss of emotional ties to history. Those ties, the direct personal experience, produced at least some cognitive immunity to the bad ideas which permitted...
I think this is an example of a global loss of emotional ties to history. Those ties, the direct personal experience, produced at least some cognitive immunity to the bad ideas which permitted Nazism and totalitarian communism to flourish.
Nearly all of the generation which endured the Second World War is now dead, the generation which recalls the Cold War and Western civil rights struggles is aging. My fear is that there's a coordinated global network of plutocrats pushing propaganda to keep us divided, against which the current generations have little immunity.
This is really depressing, especially when I look at the broader global trend of normalizing fascist-lite politics around the West. Looking at the previous century, it took 2 world wars and millions of dead for people to collectively say: “Oh hey, this type of right-wing, bottom of the barrel, nationalist, reactionary politics is evil, and will no longer be accepted in society.”
What will it take this time to get people to remember this?
I was reading Steve Bannon's wiki page the other day. I've never understood the rationale for a nationalist to travel the world promoting nationalism in other countries. One thing that I found interesting was his apparent obsession with the "Fourth Turning theory". I've never studied political science but this seems like historical and political mysticism to me. I bring this up because it is sort of premised on the idea of a generational short-term memory. Short term in the sense that the experiences of those who understood this lesson of anti-nationalism, despite their best efforts to convey that lesson to the younger generations, dies with them.
There are people such as Bannon who understand this phenomenon and decide to wield it for their own purposes rather than viewing it as a tragedy or making an effort to educate others about the dangers of nationalism.
I think this is an example of a global loss of emotional ties to history. Those ties, the direct personal experience, produced at least some cognitive immunity to the bad ideas which permitted Nazism and totalitarian communism to flourish.
Nearly all of the generation which endured the Second World War is now dead, the generation which recalls the Cold War and Western civil rights struggles is aging. My fear is that there's a coordinated global network of plutocrats pushing propaganda to keep us divided, against which the current generations have little immunity.