Best piece I've seen on Bannon in the LA Progressive
[Quote]Bannon is a figure of pompous self-importance draped in the tattered cloak of Gothic melodrama. It is a trompe l’oeil, a devilish illusion designed to cover up the fact that Bannon and Trump ooze the same decrepit odor of shamelessness, of egomaniacal cunning, of boorishness, of mean-spirited destructiveness under the thrall of self-delusion and in the service of personal power.
[Quote]Some claim Bannon is creating a shadow party within the GOP, a subterranean force aiming to reshape the political landscape from within through the ethereal whispers of New Thought and the arcane incantations of Chaos Magick to the shadowed corridors of Julius Evola’s far-right esotericism and the mystic dogmas of the Traditionalists.
[Quote]In the tangled recesses of Steve Bannon’s mind, there swirls a tempestuous amalgam of esoteric philosophies, a grim confluence where the gnostic visions of Norman Vincent Peale, the Trump family’s own apostle of positive thinking, intersect with the arcane wisdom of Manly P. Hall and the sinister allure of Julius Evola, the fascist muse and Nazi sympathizer. These are squeezed alongside the perverse metaphysical doctrines of René Guénon, the French-Egyptian sage who forged the spiritual underpinnings of Traditionalism. Looming in this shadowy congregation is also the contemporary intellectual specter of Aleksandr Gelyevich Dugin, the fascist Russian philosopher
[Quote]In the cavernous chambers of his War Room podcast, Bannon’s oratory unfurls like billowing clouds, heavy with accusation and insinuation. A colossus in the eyes of his fervent disciples, Bannon’s bloviating sway extends across a diverse spectrum, from the earnest truth-seekers to the axe-grinding zealots and conspiracy mongers. Yet, behind the veneer of his charismatic charm lies a mind honed in the art of manipulation. Cunningly cloaked in the garb of conspiracy cognoscenti, Bannon deftly maneuvers through the labyrinth of public discourse, wielding his Harvard and Georgetown pedigree like a two-edged sword.
[Quote]His strategy: to cloak conservative radicalism in the guise of tradition, to rally a disillusioned populace around a banner of nostalgic extremism and to march them inexorably toward his dystopian dream of a Francoist-like (i.e., Catholic dictatorship). Francoist repression claimed the lives of between 30,000 and 50,000 souls, a grim testament to the era’s brutality. In 1937, Franco seized the severed hand of Saint Teresa of Avila, the revered Doctor of the Catholic Faith, and kept it beside his bed until his death in 1975. This relic, thankfully now returned to the nuns of Nuestra Señora de la Merced in Ronda, Spain, resides in a darkened, locked room, enshrined within a silver glove adorned with precious stones.