10 Essential Books for Understanding How the World Works

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Re: 10 Essential Books for Understanding How the World Works

Postby Wombaticus Rex » Thu Apr 28, 2016 9:12 pm

Wombaticus Rex » Tue Aug 20, 2013 9:14 am wrote:James Mills, "The Underground Empire." Got a Deep Politics thread on the subject going, and many more notes to post up once we have internets @ the new homestead.

It is a great counterpoint to books like PDScott's "Cocaine Politics" which is quite.....dry.


Did some twitter exposition on others in this vein, unpacking the Deep State Internationale, basically. Several are, I am sure, repeated earlier in this thread:

Burton Hersh, "The Old Boys." Triumph of insider research, heavily indexed & annotated, the bedrock for most other (inferior) CIA histories.

Jim Hougan, "Spooks." Langley contractors love to pretend this motherfucker doesn't exist. It does. You should buy it ASAP. It's cheap used.

Colby & Dennett, "Thy Will be Done." A hot mess of a book that offers ~100,000 important & unique data points re: Rockefeller nexus.

(The criticism that "Thy Will Be Done" failed to prove its own thesis is pretty valid, but they did more legwork than the whole f'ing JBS.)

Anderson & Anderson, "Inside the League." History of the WACL & detailed study of post-WWII international fascism. Constant headfucks.

Dennis King, "Lyndon LaRouche and the New American Fascism" - written as anti-NDPC expose, winds up an entertaining how-to on dirty politics

Bryan Burrough, "The Big Rich." Entertaining but mind-blowing, valuable for erasing the line between real history and Bond Villain cartoons.

Kevin Coogan, "Dreamer of the Day." Best read in conjunction with "Inside the League." Very even-handed, detailed biography of F.P. Yockey.

Yockey, like John McCloy or Adnan Khashoggi, is one of those human binding agents that warps history & forms networks everywhere they go.

Douglas Valentine, "The Strength of the Wolf" - History of pre-DEA federal drug agencies & politics. Page after page of footnoted headfucks.

Tim Shorrock, "Spies for Hire." Most other modern books on privatized mil/intel are just weak re-hashes of this. Amazingly thorough work.


But is that "How The World Works?" Random usernames disagreed.



Sure, we take requests, man. I got a few of those, too:

Lewis Mumford, "Technics and Human Development" / "The Pentagon of Power." Best overall single serving roadmap I've found so far.

Theodore Roszak, "The Cult of Information." The godfather of tech-skepticism, this is still concisely on point 30 years later.

William Irwin Thompson, "At the Edge of History" / "Evil and World Order." Two short, intense meditations on our human entrapment.
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Re: 10 Essential Books for Understanding How the World Works

Postby brekin » Fri Apr 29, 2016 12:30 pm

This is an older Intelligence agent bio, late 80's, but I think this is still very relevant, perhaps even more so now.
Wright was a Senior Scientist for M15 (the first one) before and during intelligence agencies started computerizing data and relied more on active field agents gathering data. Besides a fascinating glimpse into intelligence work in Britain and Europe it sheds light on US-UK intelligence relations, but what was most interesting was the bald fact that intelligence work, as other fields, is completely hampered by what people want to believe. Petty jealousies, institutional inter/intra fighting, political considerations, pensions, school ties, funding grabs, personal and personnel issues, lack of technical or management expertise, and human complexities, etc. all determine what truth is pursued and carried for the day.

Most intriguing, (and this is less of Le Carre twist for most US/UK intelligence work now) is that many of those in power in the 1950-70's in the UK were very into Communism and Homosexuality in the 1920-40's, in the upper class, so there were many double agents in M15, M16 and fellow travelers in the power structure who were still active agents, fellow travelers, or at least simpatico and friendly with their old school chums and turned a blind eye. For many being Red then was like protesting the Vietman war in the 60's in ivy league colleges for many politicians today, something to not dwell about and move on. So with the power structure riddled with those who were turned or compromised, many times the intelligence agencies were more concerned about "not causing embarrassments".

Good workaday account of what intelligence work was like during a hot period of spying that is pretty compelling, in that civil British manner where you still have a drink with your boss of the intelligence agency even though you suspect him of being the top Russia spy in Britain, and he knows you do. Cheers.

Image
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spycatcher
If I knew all mysteries and all knowledge, and have not charity, I am nothing. St. Paul
I hang onto my prejudices, they are the testicles of my mind. Eric Hoffer
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Re: 10 Essential Books for Understanding How the World Works

Postby zangtang » Fri Apr 29, 2016 1:24 pm

believe this or no, my copy is sitting next to the aforementioned Jim Hougans' spooks,
Mark lanes' plausible denial,
Bare-faced messiah,
Buckminster Fullers Critical Path, &
Dolans' 1st 2 vols UFOs/Natsec state.
further left is Search for the Manchurian candidate &
'Sam & Chuck Giancanas' Double Cross

nestled in there is the (i believe rare as fuck &) utterly gobsmacking Charles Levinsons'..........
VODKA-COLA

Vey possibly influenced my future reading (ie destroyed my mind & made me unfit for corporate or consumer consumption or production!) as much as the.....Taa-Daa! - ILLUMINATUS! TRILOGY
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Re: 10 Essential Books for Understanding How the World Works

Postby zangtang » Fri Apr 29, 2016 1:27 pm

Forgot to add this - if you remember the unholy shitstorm surrounding the whole Spycatcher imbroglio........

the guy fighting the authors case in Aus..........is now their PM !

(wikipedia): In partnership with Bruce McWilliam he established his own law firm, Turnbull McWilliam. During 1986 Turnbull defended Peter Wright, a former MI5 official who authored the book Spycatcher, and successfully stopped the British government's attempts to suppress the book's publication in Australia. Turnbull later wrote a book on the trial.[27]

"The fact of the matter is that nothing is achieved in this world, particularly politically, other than with persistence, and persistence involves repetition and it involves argument and re-argument... The public interest in free speech is not just in truthful speech, in correct speech, in fair speech... The interest is in the debate. You see, every person who has ultimately changed the course of history has started off being unpopular." Turnbull's closing submissions, 18 December 1986[28]
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Re: 10 Essential Books for Understanding How the World Works

Postby slimmouse » Fri Apr 29, 2016 1:57 pm

Whilst continuously emphasizing that how the world really works is ultimately very personal, Im disappointed in how few have yet come to recognise the fact that the conspiracy of the elite, probably dating back to post-deluvian society, and certainly since the invention of the Monotheistic series of have youre religion chosen for you, before you even take a breath, or make a conscious decision is still in place today.

Lots of key bloodlines in there.
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Re: 10 Essential Books for Understanding How the World Works

Postby guruilla » Mon May 02, 2016 1:43 pm

For more than half a century, America’s vast literary culture has been disparately policed, and imperceptibly contained, by state and corporate entities well placed and perfectly equipped to wipe out wayward writings. As America does not ban books, other means—less obvious, and so less controversial—have been deployed to vaporize them. The purpose of Forbidden Bookshelf is to bring such disappeared books back to life so that readers may finally learn what those in power did not want anyone to know.

http://www.openroadmedia.com/series/for ... bookshelf/
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Re: 10 Essential Books for Understanding How the World Works

Postby Harvey » Thu May 19, 2016 6:27 pm

And while we spoke of many things, fools and kings
This he said to me
"The greatest thing
You'll ever learn
Is just to love
And be loved
In return"


Eden Ahbez
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Re: 10 Essential Books for Understanding How the World Works

Postby guruilla » Tue Jul 12, 2016 8:12 pm

I got to have a short talk with William Blum, which probably wouldn't have happened if it weren't for this thread: http://newbooksnetwork.com/william-blum ... ooks-2013/

Thanks!
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Re: 10 Essential Books for Understanding How the World Works

Postby maco144 » Wed Jul 13, 2016 2:16 pm

guruilla » Tue Jul 12, 2016 8:12 pm wrote:I got to have a short talk with William Blum, which probably wouldn't have happened if it weren't for this thread: http://newbooksnetwork.com/william-blum ... ooks-2013/

Thanks!


Really hope his health improves and he gets back to writing!
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Re: 10 Essential Books for Understanding How the World Works

Postby guruilla » Fri Jul 29, 2016 7:36 pm

Sexual Abuse, Shonda and Concealment in Orthodox Jewish Communities by Michael Lesher analyzes how and why cases of child sexual abuse have been systematically concealed in Orthodox Jewish communities. The book (the first of its kind) thoroughly examines a number of recent cover-ups in detail, showing how denial, backlash against victims, and the manipulation of the secular justice system have placed Orthodox Jewish community leaders in the position of defending, protecting, and enabling child abusers. The book also examines the disappointing treatment of this issue in popular media, while dissecting the institutions that contribute to the cover-ups, including two--rabbinic courts and local Orthodox "patrols"--that are more or less unique to Orthodox Jewish communities. Finally, the book explores the cultural factors that have contributed to this tragedy, and concludes with hopes and proposals for future reform

Michael Lesher, a writer and a lawyer, has published a number of articles about child abuse and is co-author of a book on the American family court system's poor record of protecting children. An Orthodox Jew, he has also published short fiction and poetry and lives in Passaic, New Jersey.


Interview with Lesher:

First part of two-part conversation with Michael Lesher, author of Sexual Abuse, Shonda, and Concealment in Orthodox Jewish Communities, on being a traitor to one’s religion, a pervasive problem, the differing cultures of abuse, institutional inattention, Shonda, shame, and scandal, a self-concealing problem, a shameful reality, challenging self-image, hierarchy in religious communities, the fear of undermining authority, an institutional imperative, abuse cases in family court, social destabilization as a result of child abuse awareness, Jimmy Savile’s institutional protection, endemic child abuse, the poison of power, defending Woody Allen & why no one wants to hear Dylan Farrow’s side, the irrelevance of the victim, identifying with power, on the side of the strong, looking for monsters, the crime of telling the truth, what victims want, a split in the Jewish community, finding a voice, Rabbinic reaction against the Internet, the end of atomization, carrying a secret, seeking a vehicle of shared reality, speaking an experience into reality, becoming a threat by breaking the silence, the law against informing in Jewish communities, being held accountable for choosing how to interpret the Talmud, the Talmud’s prohibition against extortion, adopting the methods of the persecutors, Jewish power abuse, minorities, self-protective strategies & getting into a pro-government posture, the virus of power, justice vs. hierarchy, how selective love = a policy of hate, why condoning any form of power abuse leads to child abuse.

http://auticulture.com/the-liminalist-74/
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Re: 10 Essential Books for Understanding How the World Works

Postby divideandconquer » Tue Sep 06, 2016 11:11 am

brekin » Sun Oct 02, 2011 11:39 pm wrote:Image

This is a favorite. I've always considered it the
anti-Fountainhead. And if I were high school English
teacher I would have students read The Fountainhead
and then Captains and the Kings. It is definitely
a bit of an iconoclastic "How the World Really Works" entry.
A fat, pulpy, romantic relationship based view of
how "the system" creates certain people and they in
turn create it. I typed up her foreward below which would
probably sink any novel today but I guess back in the 70's
it was a bestseller and they even made a mini-series on
television from it that was very popular I guess.

Captains and the Kings.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captains_and_the_Kings

Captains and the Kings is a 1972 historical novel by Taylor Caldwell chronicling the rise to wealth
and power of an Irish immigrant, Joseph Francis Xavier Armagh, who arrives penniless as a teenager in
the United States of America. An inter-generational saga focusing on the themes of the American dream,
discrimination and bigotry in American life, and of history as made by a cabal of the rich and powerful, it
was one of the top 10 best-sellers of 1972, as ranked by the New York Times Best Seller List. Caldwell
drew heavily on aspects of the Kennedy family, John D. Rockefeller and Howard Hughes.

The book was adapted into an eight part television miniseries by NBC in the 1976 broadcast season, starring
Richard Jordan, Charles Durning, Blair Brown, David Huffman, Patty Duke and a star laden supporting cast.
Duke won an Emmy Award for her performance. Jordan won a Golden Globe award and an Emmy nomination
for his performance. Burning was nominated for both an Emmy and a Golden Globe. Beverly D'Angelo made her debut.


From the 1972 foreword:
"This book is dedicated to the young people of America, who are rebelling because they know something is very
wrong in their country, but do not know just what it is. I hope this book will help to enlighten them.
There is not, to my knowledge any family like the "Armagh Family" in America, nor has there ever been, and all
characters, except those obviously historical, are my own invention. However, the historical background and the
political background of this novel are authentic. The "Committee for Foreign Studies" does indeed exist, today
as of yesterday, and so does the "Scardo Society," but not by these names.

There is indeed a "plot against the people," and probably always will be, for government has always been hostile
towards the governed. It is not a new story, and the conspirators and conspiracies have varied from era to era,
depending on the political and economic situation in their various countries.

But it was not until the era of the League of Just Men and Karl Marx that conspirators and conspiracies became
one, with one aim, one objective, and one determination. This has nothing to do with any "ideology" or form
of government, or ideals or "materialism" or any other catchphrases generously fed to the unthinking
masses. It has absolutely nothing to do with races or religions, for the conspirators are beyond what they
call "such trivialities." They are also beyond good and evil. The Caesars they put into power are their
creatures, whether they know it or not, and the peoples of all nations are helpless, whether they live
in America, Europe, Russia, China, Africa, or South America. They will always be helpless until they are
aware of their real enemy.

President John F. Kennedy knew what he was talking about when he spoke of the "Gnomes of Zurich."
Perhaps he knew too much! Coups d'etat are an old story, but they are now growing too numerous.
This is probably the last hour for mankind as a rational species, before it becomes the slave of a
"planned society." A bibliography ends this book, and I hope many of my readers will avail themselves
of the facts. That is all the hope I have.

Taylor Caldwell


Just finished reading this book...I couldn't put it down. I received the one and only library copy in my state and I think I'll be the last to read it because it was in such bad shape. Not a small book and I had to hold it together while reading it but it was worth it. I doubt they'll order a new one.
“American people beg to be seduced.”― Taylor Caldwell, Captains and the Kings

Some interesting quotes:

p. 232
"My dear Mr. Montrose, said one of the gentlemen, "do you not agree that it is time for your country to embark on empire and become part of the universal monarchy plans?
[...]
"Then it is the duty of informed men to introduce the theories of Karl Marx into America," said one gentleman, "it is ridiculous that your Washington be so weak and government so decentralized and power left to the individual states. Centralized power, as you know Mr. Montrose, is the only guarantee of profits and controlled wars, and prosperity. We cannot be too much in haste to introduce the theories and mandates of Karl Marx. These theories destroy the concept of anything but the power of the centralized state. Once power is concentrated in Washington--admittedly not an immediate prospect--America will take her place as an empire and calculate and instigate wars, for the advantage of all concerned. We all know, from long experience, that progress depends on war."


p. 297
"America is not prosperous enough for looting as yet. That will come later--we do not know how much later --with the establishment of a private banking institution in America, which will have the power to coin money and not Congress: a Federal Reserve System. This can only come in the form of an amendment to your Constitution.
[...]
In two years alone the the organization of William M. Tweed and a few others of his Tammany conspirators stole $75 million from the depressed city of New York, and their total thieving, from 1865-1871, was estimated by investigators to be in the neighborhood of $200 millions. Tweed threatened contractors doing business with New York so efficiently that they added 100% to their bills to the city, and returned the overcharge to the Tweed ring. As a result, in one case alone, NY paid nearly $2 million for plastering one building and over million and a half for some 35 tables and chairs. Tweed, of course, was director of Erie Railroad, together with one Fisk and Jay Gould, and suborned politicians and judges and many in the legislature."

"This was done with such aplomb, such grace and geniality, such loving laughter, that the miserable inhabitants of New York felt only love for their exploiters, and even adoration , for did these not , close to election day, supply them with bread and food and money and beer and whiskey and coal and other gifts for their votes? The fact that if the Tweed group had not robbed them in the first place they could have bought these things, and more, for themselves, never entered their simple minds, or, if some man pointed this fact to them they became infuriated."
[...]
"Mankind adores its betrayers, and murders its saviors. Joseph did not intend to become a savior."

p.338
"They would plan to destroy American freedom and establish themselves as the Elite--as other planned for their own countries--but they would do it with urbanity and self-mocking hypocrisy. It would all be the same in the end, but the means were gayer and not icily cynical and bloodless. The words of Mr. Vanderbilt, "The hell with the public." would prevail but the pubic would well know the sentiments of their coming rulers, and their present ones, and might even smile at their raucous effrontery." It was the deadly men, who spoke in low tones of "human rights" and "compassionate considerations"--while they methodically looted, and endlessly plotted against human freedom and human dignity--who were execrable. "


p. 339
But, thought Joseph, would a nation prefer a jovial executioner to a solemn one? He thought it very likely that America would.
[...]
"Americans adore delightful pitchmen.. Americans suspect too much intellect...They prefer a glittering clown."


p. 348
"Hypocrites scream ideologies and slogans to gain it over the gullible and what I like to call the 'pure in hearts'. But my-- friends-- have no ideologies though they will solemnly use those of others if it serves them...They have several things in common: None is devoted to his particular country. None cares about the people's welfare in any nation. All are avaricious beyond the avarice of the general public to comprehend. All are sublime egoists. All are enemies of what you call freedom, Senator.


p. 349
Revolutions never rise from the working people, the farmers, the petty shopkeepers, They rise from the bored and overfed bourgeoisie, the men who already rule, the so-called intellectuals, the affluent restless whose souls are empty of any spiritual value but lust for cold violence


p.513
We cannot have nationalism and sovereign states, which divide and disperse our interests. We must work for a world Socialistic empire, which we will be able to control without tedious distractions of independent political entities and their internal and external quarrels."
[...]
They will plunder the people of the world through heavy taxation in every country , then benevolently return to the subdued masses part of that revenue in "gifts" "aids" "social justice" "sharing" all the people's money anyway--for which the cowed public will be humbly grateful and become obedient and conforming.
[...]
Marxism was not a "movement" for the liberation and rule of the "proletariat" but a conspiracy of those who called themselves the Elite and whose aim is despotism.."


p. 521
He thought of the faceless men in all nations who planned and destroyed as a matter of course and expediency, with no qualms, no stirrings of primeval spirit, no atavistic incantations against pursuing vengeance. They were realists.


p. 547
But they wouldn't believe you and isn't that fortunate? The people love to believe that this world is Pure and Good and Beautiful and that God's in His Heaven and all's right with the world...A nation never forgives a man who makes it think. It will forgive murderers and liars and thieves and exploiters, oppressors and tyrants. But a man who says, 'let me tell you about your enemies and what you must do about them, in faith, in justice, in courage and fortitude lest he die' will indeed die himself. His people will kill him. There will be no coup d' etat as you call it."

I think saints and just men should be strangled at birth. They do have a way of upsetting the plans of their betters, or trying to at any rate. That, of course, is intolerable.
'I see clearly that man in this world deceives himself by admiring and esteeming things which are not, and neither sees nor esteems the things which are.' — St. Catherine of Genoa
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Re: 10 Essential Books for Understanding How the World Works

Postby semper occultus » Wed Dec 21, 2016 7:59 am

Image

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Re: 10 Essential Books for Understanding How the World Works

Postby semper occultus » Fri Feb 03, 2017 5:16 am

....ooooffff...Twilight Zone music...


Steve Bannon's obsession with a dark theory of history should be worrisome

Linette Lopez, Business Insider

http://uk.businessinsider.com/book-steve-bannon-is-obsessed-with-the-fourth-turning-2017-2

President Trump's adviser, Steve Bannon, is on the cover of this week's Time magazine, and in the piece it is revealed that Bannon deeply believes in a theory about America's future laid out in a book called "The Fourth Turning: What Cycles of History Tell Us About America's Next Rendezvous with Destiny."

This fact should concern every American.

In the book, authors William Strauss and Neil Howe theorize that the history of a people moves in 80-to-100 year cycles called "saecula." The idea goes back to the ancient Greeks, who believed that at a given saeculum's end, there would come "ekpyrosis," a cataclysmic event that destroys the old order and brings in a new one in a trial of fire.

This era of change is known as the Fourth Turning, and Bannon, like Strauss and Howe, believes we are in the midst of one right now.

According to the book, the last two Fourth Turnings that America experienced were the Civil War and the Reconstruction, and then the Great Depression and World War II. Before that, it was the Revolutionary War.

All these were marked by periods of dread and decay in which the American people were forced to unite to rebuild a new future, but only after a massive conflict in which many lives were lost. It all starts with a catalyst event, then there's a period of regeneracy, after that there is a defining climax in which a war for the old order is fought, and then finally there is a resolution in which a new world order is stabilized.

This is where Bannon's obsession with this book should cause concern. He believes that, for the new world order to rise, there must be a massive reckoning. That we will soon reach our climax conflict. In the White House, he has shown that he is willing to advise Trump to enact policies that will disrupt our current order to bring about what he perceives as a necessary new one. He encourages breaking down political and economic alliances and turning away from traditional American principles to cause chaos.

In that way, Bannon seems to be trying to bring about the Fourth Turning.

The book in Bannon
Bannon has never been secretive about his desire to use Trump to bring about his vision of America. He told Vanity Fair last summer that Trump was a "blunt instrument for us ... I don’t know whether he really gets it or not."

Perhaps not, but putting a Fourth Turning lens on Trump's policies certainly give them a great deal of context. Bannon believes that the catalyst for the Fourth Turning has already happened: the financial crisis.

So now we are in the regeneracy. Howe and Strauss describe this period as one of isolationism, one of infrastructure building and of strong, centralized government power, and a reimagination of the economy.

Of course it's important not to lose sight of the end here. Bannon believes in authoritarian politics as preparation for a massive conflict between East and West, whether East means the Middle East or China.

Over the years, Bannon has unsuccessfully tried to pressure historians such as David Kaiser, now at MIT, to say the same thing.

From Time:

"I remember him saying, 'Well, look, you have the American revolution, and then you have the Civil War, which was bigger than the revolution. And you have the Second World War, which was bigger than the Civil War,' Kaiser said. 'He even wanted me to say that on camera, and I was not willing.'

"Howe, too, was struck by what he calls Bannon's 'rather severe outlook on what our nation is going through.' Bannon noted repeatedly on his radio show that 'we're at war' with radical jihadis in places around the world. This is 'a global existential war' that likely will become 'a major shooting war in the Middle East again.' War with China may also be looming, he has said. This conviction is central to the Breitbart mission, he explained in November 2015: 'Our big belief, one of our central organizing principles at the site, is that we're at war.'"

The reality of repetition
Ultimately, the danger of writing about the past at the same time one writes about the future is that it can be hard for an author to separate the two. The steps and missteps of the past seem so easily repeatable that the future seems to march in lockstep. But this is not what history has shown us. The catastrophes of every era have always materialized in their own unique ways.

It is here where Strauss and Howe fail in their work, and here where Bannon gets caught in their failure. The authors mention in passing that the event that brings us into a crisis could be "as ominous as a financial crisis or as ordinary as a national election."

This makes sense. The Fourth Turning of the Civil War and Reconstruction played out differently than the Fourth Turning afterward, the Depression and World War II.

But Strauss and Howe fail to recognize that difference in their description of the Fourth Turning to come. They forget that no two Turnings are alike; instead, they get trapped thinking that the last catalyst — the Great Depression, a financial crisis — was the next one as well, and Bannon does too.

This is why he believes that the Great Financial Crisis of 2008 was the catalyst of our crisis, just as the Great Depression was the catalyst in the previous saeculum. But the two are not comparable. Unemployment in the US never reached 20%, as it did then; it hit 10% in October 2009. In 2008 the government acted fast to prevent a full global meltdown, and it did not allow the situation to deteriorate the way President Herbert Hoover and his administration did for two years.

Instead of all of America suffering as one, what the financial crisis brought on was an exacerbation of the inequality growing in the world for the 40 years before it.

So when President Franklin Roosevelt described a country laid waste by the Great Depression in his inaugural address in 1933, he was describing a picture that all Americans were seeing. On the other hand Trump, in his inaugural, described a dark "American carnage" that many did not recognize. That lack of recognition marked our deep division as a country.

Alignment
So perhaps there is a Fourth Turning to come, but Bannon is not an architect of its initiation. According to Howe and Strauss, unity is the defining feature of the regeneracy. It is what allows leaders during a crisis to become "authoritarian, severe, unyielding" in commanding resources in order to rebuild society.

This is what allowed FDR to command the full force of government to put people back to work. But unity is less apparent in American society than it has been in years. Quite the contrary, our society is showing division as never before.

The stars of the "Fourth Turning" are baby boomers and millennials. Boomers are the ideologues who lead our country into conflict through folly; millennials are cast as the young heroes that bring them out of it.

Once the catalyst event takes place, Strauss and Howe describe a situation in which America coalesces under one leader — a boomer "Gray Warrior" — who will "urgently resist the idea that a second consecutive generation might be denied the American Dream. No matter how shattered the economy ... "

If Bannon believes that he is working for this Gray Warrior, then he's missing a very important point: Millennials are the ones who lead the way forward out of crisis in this story, but considering the needs of the young has never had any place under Trumpism. Trump's words appealed most to older generations who felt like something had been taken away from them, not to younger generations who felt like they were never given a chance at the American Dream in the first place.

The majority of young people who voted in 2016 voted against President Trump, and even more millennials chose to stay home. That is, in part, because Trump never offered young people anything. I n July, at the Republican National Convention, the national head of the young Republicans, Alexandra Smith, warned her party about this.

"For too long Republicans haven't been making their case to millennials," Smith said, her saccharine tone smoothing over the severity of the situation. "There's just too much old and not enough grand in the way we express our party's value to the next generation of voters."

"The Fourth Turning" envisioned by Howe and Strauss requires a return to an agreed-upon set of values, but millennials and the GOP (or Bannon for that matter) couldn't be farther away from one another. For one, millennials are the most diverse group in US history (43% of them are nonwhite). Most do not share Bannon's vision for ethnic conflict.

"The Fourth Turning" is the story of our country unifying against internal struggles and an outside threat. The authors describe it as the natural course of history, as something that just falls into place. Instead, what we are seeing, with Trump's travel ban and his threats against Mexico and China, is the creation of enemies, enemies many Americans don't want to have.

Instead of uniting us, Bannon's belief in "The Fourth Turning" is dividing us. This is dangerous, uncharted territory. What comes next is, as always, unwritten.
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Joined: Wed Feb 08, 2006 2:01 pm
Location: London,England
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