“Ever since the first ziggurats rose in ancient Babylonia, the so-called forces of order, stability, and tradition have feared a revolt from below. Beginning with Edmund Burke and Joseph de Maistre after the French Revolution, a whole library of political literature, some classical liberal, some conservative, some reactionary, has emphasized this theme. The title  of Ortega y Gasset’s most famous work, The Revolt of the Masses, tells us something about its mental atmosphere, a Freudian fear of defilement by the great unwashed.

“But in our globalized postmodern America, what if this whole vision of order, stability, and who threatens those values is inverted? The idea of a revolution from below, still conceivable in 1933, is almost preposterously unthinkable now. What if Christopher Lasch came closer to the truth in his book The Revolt of the Elites, in which he said, “In our time, the chief threat seems to come from those at the top of the social hierarchy, not the masses.”

“Lasch held that the elites, by which he meant not just the superwealthy but also their managerial coat holders and professional apologists, were undermining the country’s promise as a  constitutional republic with their prehensile greed, their asocial cultural values, and their absence of civic responsibility. Lasch wrote this in 1995. Now, two decades later, the superrich have at last achieved escape velocity from the gravitational pull of the society they control. The have been able to do this in part because laws were bent or reinterpreted in their favor.”

– Mike Lofgren, “The Deep State: The Fall of the Constitution and the Rise of a Shadow Government” (2016) p.139.

(Editor’s Note: If you would like to really understand the Deep State and why there is so little difference between the Republicans and Democrats of issues of national war making, Wall Street crime, domestic militarized policing and surveillance then read Mike Lofgren’s “Deep State: The Fall of the Constitution and the Rise of a Shadow Government.” Lofgren worked 30 years as a congressional staffer. He was a moderate Republican when he first went to D.C. He outlines the corruption of both parties. This book is well worth the time. – Mark L. Taylor)

 

Three Corporate Revolutionaries

 

• Trump Adviser Stave Bannon Sees Himself As A Revolutionary in The Tradition of Lenin –  “I am increasingly convinced that Steve Bannon is deliberately fueling a culture war, manipulating people into taking sides in preparation for a transformative change that he himself has described as being on the scale of the American Civil War, the Russian Revolution, and other bloody mass upheavals of history. Don’t believe me? Good. Be skeptical — it keeps democracy healthy. Watch this talk he gave in 2011. And then watch the trailer for Torchbearer, the film he directed and co-wrote in 2016. (Also available on vimeo.) Steve Bannon has deeply held convictions about the cultural bankruptcy of America. I happen to disagree with those convictions, but he has every right to his opinion, and so do you. What truly alarms me is this: he has stated that only through revolutionary upheaval can we get back to what he views as the right path. He has compared himself to Lenin. Lenin? Yes: “Lenin wanted to destroy the state, and that’s my goal too. I want to bring everything crashing down, and destroy all of today’s establishment.” This is not about righting the ship of state. It’s about capsizing it. And then fighting for control of the life rafts. So long as Bannon has Trump’s ear, we need to understand that our elected president is being guided by a man with a truly revolutionary mindset. … Read the Rest

• Tearing The Govt. Out At The Root: The Dream Of The Koch Brothers And Their Radical Father: – The GOP did not become the radical, anti-government party by accident. Two men, David and Charles Koch,  have spent most of their adult lives and hundreds of millions of dollars to convince Americans that we need a tiny government with no power in order to be free. If you want to understand how these men became such anti-government power brokers, take a few minutes to meet their father, one of the founding members of the John Birch Society. Don’t stop reading because the Birch Society is, in your mind, ancient history. At this moment, candidates who spout John Birch Society ideas are in control in the House, Senate, and 30 states. If we give them the White House — look out. Most Americans have no idea how much the Birch Society has impacted our country. Those who have heard of the Birchers believe they are fringe radicals who were done in by conservative Republicans was back in the 1960s. Hardly anyone knows the names of even a handful of Birchers. There is one Birch name, however, that raises eyebrows: Koch … Read the Rest