/lit/ - Literature

>>9316486
No, you're right. And the longer this presidency goes the way it has so far the less likely it becomes that anybody will take Bannon seriously. He's inscribed on a lot of that process.

I only invoke the name because of the inherent nostalgia for the past and so on that was a part of Trump's campaign, and which, although I am no professional scholar of fascism, is arguably a part of all such movements. Roger Griffin called it palingenetic ultranationalism, this idea that the state has fallen and now has to be restored. While it is an admittedly far cry to call Trump or Bannon fascists outright, and that not every movement which aims to resuscitate a body of people through charismatic leadership is necessarily fascist, I think there are enough crossover points in Bannon's rhetoric to warrant at least a minimal comparison.

He's definitely something as a phenomenon. Time will tell how much. I suppose for me he's relevant because the language he uses really is ideology in full and living color. I spent a lot of time thinking about Bannon and Trump last year as well (no doubt as many did) and in general falling for the charm of fixing one's own personal problems by projecting onto politics. Prior to that I hadn't really given a damn about politics at all, really only philosophy...and now I'm wondering if that's not where I want to go back to because culture-war politics are exhausting and depressing as fuck.

He is interesting. Right-wing politics are, if only because they're so new and are presenting such a challenge to the postmodern thinking that really does inform, I think, much of the present age. It's the stuff I cut my own philosophical teeth on. Jung, for instance, is sometimes described as an 'avant-garde conservative.' I find that interesting, and perhaps more psychologically helpful than, say, Julius Evola or the Bhagavad Gita - both favourites of Bannon, from what I understand.

Peterson has his flaws, no doubt, but I sympathize with his project in the same way I sympathize with Zizek's: trying to help people with their illusions and fantasies and perhaps avoiding the pitfalls of a world replete with them as capitalism. Peterson probably wouldn't care much about Chinese notions of virtue, as they might perhaps be too conformist to him...and it's not like the Chinese didn't massacre more than a few people in their time.

Man, all I want is total enlightenment so I can just go back to playing video games and wasting my life without feeling guilt.