I suppose I am disagreeing with much of the post, very interesting though it is. For example, "Trump is the symptom, and culmination, of the uprooting of cultural and social forms induced by a decentred, techno-capitalism, a problem which the left has failed to counter with any serious solutions." This is observant about the global transformations taking place, and it is observant about the Left, that observation is spot on, but it doesn't necessarily apply as a summation. Those transformations are not logically or politically connected with America's present descent into a proto-authoritarian state. That is much more to do with Nationalism, with the emotion of nationalistic humiliation, which is paranoid, xenophobic, fear-driven, ignorant, and which feeds off itself, and so is Trump exploiting it. People say that Trump knows nothing about how the world works. But up to a point that doesn't matter. Or it is even conducive. He is now in a position to make the world "work" according to how he wants it to work, regardless. Inside the chaotic consequences of this, which we are already seeing, people in general are going to experience penury, injustice, lawlessness and the rest, but to Trump that doesn't matter. The world is being made to "work": it is working how he wants it to and that is the point. Where people strongly identify with that attitude. THEY don't know how it works either. And here he is making it "work": he is making it work from within that ethos. Yippee! There is a simplicity here which doesn't need theory. .... The other point is that the Hegelian observation of paradox is not exactly as Hegel envisaged it, it is far more universal then he conceived it to be, and much stranger. It underpins everything we do. So again, it is not significant to the case of the descent into totalitarianism that America is currently experiencing. The causes are far more immediate and observable, and common sense. .... And there is one last thing. There is strong evidence that Trump was recruited as a KGB asset back in the 1980s. As an asset, not an agent. Russian gangsters bought up large parcels of Trump Tower. Trump took out a big expensive advert with the NYT protesting about the wrongness of NATO shortly after a visit to the Soviet Union, meeting Gorbachov and presumably the KGB inadvertently. He is suborned. He has committed acts of treason. So again, this doesn't need to be overthought in such terms. It is a pretty mundane coup, in effect. Within the outstanding irony that America is subordinating itself to a piddling little economy, an economy smaller than Spain's, for the sake of "wealth", Trump's wealth, America's impoverishment.
Mr. Holmberg, I’m finding that our writings have many parallels. Please do me a favor of checking out my most recent work, I would love your specific feedback on it. I believe my critique of capitalism has parallels with yours, I would be interested in what you have to say on my take on Marxism too.
Very good text that provokes in me a question. What *is* the negation of or an exception to democracy that it carries within itself, actually? My guess would be it’s the fact that it is currently structured as a tyranny of the majority, but is there a deeper answer?
The tools of Nazism, X, inherent in democracy are due to the problem of Nationalism - where in turn that Nationalistic sentiment is a consequence of mass exposure to severely exaggerated claims on the importance of national identity. For Hitler this meant Make Germany Great Again after the humiliation of the post WWI settlement. Likewise with Putin's Russia. In America's case MAGA seems to be about poverty, urban degeneration, tent cities, lawlessness, fentanil and a growing sense of national isolation and the associated xenophobic fears that go withit, odd ideas about European life and immigration and so on. The Trump narrative reinforces itself despite its fantasy as everyone decides it is basically right even as they disagree with its lack of values. Nazism was a response to a perceived national humiliation even as Weimar Germany thrived somewhat. So in one sense yes, as Democracy contains all the tools to create an exaggerated sense of national humiliation (as the UK saw with Brexit), American nationalism can turn to xenophobia and scapegoating; those fears and emotions are easily exploited in the "cause" of Democracy by crooks and gangsters.
I suppose I am disagreeing with much of the post, very interesting though it is. For example, "Trump is the symptom, and culmination, of the uprooting of cultural and social forms induced by a decentred, techno-capitalism, a problem which the left has failed to counter with any serious solutions." This is observant about the global transformations taking place, and it is observant about the Left, that observation is spot on, but it doesn't necessarily apply as a summation. Those transformations are not logically or politically connected with America's present descent into a proto-authoritarian state. That is much more to do with Nationalism, with the emotion of nationalistic humiliation, which is paranoid, xenophobic, fear-driven, ignorant, and which feeds off itself, and so is Trump exploiting it. People say that Trump knows nothing about how the world works. But up to a point that doesn't matter. Or it is even conducive. He is now in a position to make the world "work" according to how he wants it to work, regardless. Inside the chaotic consequences of this, which we are already seeing, people in general are going to experience penury, injustice, lawlessness and the rest, but to Trump that doesn't matter. The world is being made to "work": it is working how he wants it to and that is the point. Where people strongly identify with that attitude. THEY don't know how it works either. And here he is making it "work": he is making it work from within that ethos. Yippee! There is a simplicity here which doesn't need theory. .... The other point is that the Hegelian observation of paradox is not exactly as Hegel envisaged it, it is far more universal then he conceived it to be, and much stranger. It underpins everything we do. So again, it is not significant to the case of the descent into totalitarianism that America is currently experiencing. The causes are far more immediate and observable, and common sense. .... And there is one last thing. There is strong evidence that Trump was recruited as a KGB asset back in the 1980s. As an asset, not an agent. Russian gangsters bought up large parcels of Trump Tower. Trump took out a big expensive advert with the NYT protesting about the wrongness of NATO shortly after a visit to the Soviet Union, meeting Gorbachov and presumably the KGB inadvertently. He is suborned. He has committed acts of treason. So again, this doesn't need to be overthought in such terms. It is a pretty mundane coup, in effect. Within the outstanding irony that America is subordinating itself to a piddling little economy, an economy smaller than Spain's, for the sake of "wealth", Trump's wealth, America's impoverishment.
Mr. Holmberg, I’m finding that our writings have many parallels. Please do me a favor of checking out my most recent work, I would love your specific feedback on it. I believe my critique of capitalism has parallels with yours, I would be interested in what you have to say on my take on Marxism too.
https://open.substack.com/pub/landscapism/p/the-energetics-of-corruptibility?r=5kupfo&utm_medium=ios
Very good text that provokes in me a question. What *is* the negation of or an exception to democracy that it carries within itself, actually? My guess would be it’s the fact that it is currently structured as a tyranny of the majority, but is there a deeper answer?
The tools of Nazism, X, inherent in democracy are due to the problem of Nationalism - where in turn that Nationalistic sentiment is a consequence of mass exposure to severely exaggerated claims on the importance of national identity. For Hitler this meant Make Germany Great Again after the humiliation of the post WWI settlement. Likewise with Putin's Russia. In America's case MAGA seems to be about poverty, urban degeneration, tent cities, lawlessness, fentanil and a growing sense of national isolation and the associated xenophobic fears that go withit, odd ideas about European life and immigration and so on. The Trump narrative reinforces itself despite its fantasy as everyone decides it is basically right even as they disagree with its lack of values. Nazism was a response to a perceived national humiliation even as Weimar Germany thrived somewhat. So in one sense yes, as Democracy contains all the tools to create an exaggerated sense of national humiliation (as the UK saw with Brexit), American nationalism can turn to xenophobia and scapegoating; those fears and emotions are easily exploited in the "cause" of Democracy by crooks and gangsters.