Steve Bannon - The World and USA
- In Foreign Policy
- 12:37 PM, Feb 16, 2017
- Dr.Nikhil Dureja
It wouldn’t be misplaced to remark that other than Donald Trump, the current president of United States of America, the other person most talked about in his staff is White House chief Strategist Steve Bannon.
Bannon earlier used to head Breitbart News before joining Trump’s presidential campaign and now his administration. While FOX news ostensibly sticks to the right side of the political spectrum, Breitbart News can be said to be actually sticking to the ideology more strongly, with more clarity about its purposes and aims.
It is all but apparent that Bannon has a strong influence on policy matters in the current administration and while it is but natural for left to heap scorn on Trump and Bannon, we must analyze the ideological underpinnings of Bannon’s worldview and what it could mean for India.
Expectedly leftist media has begun scaremongering and preparing opinion to thwart Bannon. This will not only be ineffective but also counterproductive because they are giving free publicity and wide dissemination through established media to the ideologies influencing Bannon.
Those who voted Trump would only like to see their reasons reaffirmed and the opponents don't have the brains to digest the matter, those who do might be won over. While analysing Bannon I realized why Left dreads him the most amongst those in the Trump administration. The man is sharp, smart, highly intelligent and articulate, has clarity of purpose and an ideology guiding him.
The Left don't mind a cleanup of the governance, plugging of leaks and some taps running dry.
However, what they are afraid of is that the governance will have an ideological basis as long as Bannon is there. Trickledown economics may have not worked but an ideological basis at the top does trickle down into the masses over time. This would of course scare the left.
Left is ideologically fragile as strong men have left the Left. It is now a den of sleazy despots deriving power through control of media and academia and financial controlling of the ecosystems.
A few strong men well versed in ideology and with a clear vision is all it takes to detox the system. In Bannon and his team they see the detox of the system and very likely, the populace.
A lot of reporting has been done on Bannon. Many pieces have been written with his quotes and snippets but this is one piece which provides most coherent reporting of Bannon’s worldview:
The above is a link to a conference which was hosted in Vatican where Steve Bannon comprehensively articulated his worldview about US and the world.
Two things should strike us about this.
First, I think sensing the undercurrent of nationalist movements Vatican has decided to throw its weight behind the nationalist movements. After hearing all the views in that conference that includes sworn globalists, liberals, leftists as well, they have let BREXIT happen and then most Evangelical votes went to Trump. He won Ohio by a mile!
Second thing is Bannon correctly identified neo-liberalism as being a carbon copy of precepts of Marxism except instead of ‘state’ it is state plus oligarchy which controls the system. This oligarchy comes in various forms, entrenched lobbies in political factions, corporate houses and their various nexuses.
In the real world, the neo-liberal strand is a combination of corporatism and Ayn Rand's Objectivism.
This means while the left dreads Bannon, the established networks on the right don’t like him very much either because Bannon represents the strand of thought which calls for detox from all the entrenched lobbies. Many of the so called elements of the right feel threatened by this, a sort of existential threat, which would explain their near unanimous reticence in endorsing Trump during his campaign.
Now given what Bannon believes to be the right epoch for humanity, that is, the "Enlightenment Era", we can say we may be looking at an increase in US imperial tendencies, even though Bannon has repeatedly talked against the old treaties and globalist factions. What Bannon recognizes is there can be only one imperial, either white west or Islam. But owing to the underlying monotheistic /Abrahamic framework of the West itself; after they defeat Islam they will scant want to let go of colonialism.
The Abrahamic framework positions the ruler as an owner rather than a nurturer and that means there is no organic alliance between the ruler and the ruled, and they can only be brought together against a common enemy. A second characteristic of this framework is it must exist as a monopoly, which has been described as western universalism by various authors, something which I agree with. So Indians can expect US to help them but US will be looking at every chance to sabotage India.
I wouldn't trust Trump's appreciation of Modi or Hindus to have much effect on US policy regarding India. Ultimately State Department and CIA will find Bannon's approach more aligned to their current goals and situation than whatever Trump may have thought. But in the near term we can expect State Dept and US popular culture to be rapidly cleansed of Clinton faction and Clinton promoted SJW's, equality warriors, gender is fluid and the like rhetoric.
We will see a strengthened effort to send a deluge of Xmas, thanksgiving and Halloween culture our way. It helps them gain a control not only of the mind space and a foothold but also earns them a financial windfall.
"That center-right revolt is really a global revolt. I think you’re going to see it in Latin America, I think you’re going to see it in Asia, I think you’ve already seen it in India."
Perhaps that’s the reason why US State Dept let Mrs. Gandhi cool her heels this time although UPA was better to their liking. But they will try their best to get UPA back in reckoning for 2019. This should be in our minds while India deal with the new administration.
“Because at the end of the day, Putin and his cronies are really a kleptocracy, than an imperialist power that want to expand.”
Very cleverly Bannon does not mention that Alt-Right west is imbued with the same imperialist tendencies; since he couldn’t bring himself to say in response to a question that to completely defeat Islam they will have to lose themselves as well, as in go beyond their own monotheistic underpinnings.
One essential difference between Trump administration and our current administration is the sort of ideological clarity provided by Bannon which is in line with their civilizational ethos.
We lack a clear and overt ideological basis and bias still and need a coherent civilizational voice and perspective in policy making role in the administratio
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