Know Your Enemy

Warren Kinsella 

✔@kinsellawarren

WAR ROOM PRO TIP: Don't call Trump "president." Call him Trump, Mr., etc. But don't ever bestow legitimacy on opponent. #uspoli #cdnpoli

8:57 AM - 18 Feb 2017

 
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Here's the problem with this.

In a democracy, other parties aren't your enemy.  They are representatives of differing perspectives. There will be points sides agree or disagree on, as has always been the case in Canada - in fact, the three main parties tend to agree on way more issues than they disagree.

Winning is about beating an opponent, though, and politics is about power - not policy, but the ability to be the one who implements it, to the exclusion of others.  

So, the war room.

Politics in this country has always been pugilistic, but in my experience it's only gotten militaristic in the past 20 years or so.  In that time, steadily growing teams of opposition research and such has been employed and deployed to disrupt other parties.  Messaging has gone way over the top, presenting foes not as dumb or "not up to the job" but as existential threats.

This kind of "don't legitimise your opponents, even if they've been legitimised by the electorate" stuff is all part of that.

It's putting down the opponent, creating and trying to push your own version of reality.  That pisses people off.  It's pissed people off so much, in fact, that more than a few people are willing to back guys who say fuck you to the "established players" and their increasingly removed-from-reality games.

Which reminds me of the scenario below.

Who do you want to delegitimze Trump to?  Anyone who likes him is going to feel even more justified in doing so, and in ignoring you, if you play these sorts of games.  Everyone else already agrees.

Don't focus on what you call the guy - focus on the people who don't trust you.

Because they aren't your enemy, but you've sure given them cause to view you as theirs.

You Can't Be a Christian and a Traditionalist at the Same Time

At least, Traditionalism in the way Julius Evola meant it:

Evola's first published political work was an anti-fascist piece in 1925. In this work, Evola called Italy's fascist movement a "laughable revolution," based on empty sentiment and materialistic concerns. He expressed anti-Nationalist sentiment, stating that to become “truly human,” one would have to “overcome brotherly contamination” and “purge oneself” of the feeling that one is united with others “because of blood, affections, country or human destiny.” 

Brotherly contamination?  Purge oneself of feeling united with others?

That's not true to any religion - in fact, all the world's major religions, including Christianity and Islam, preach the opposite.

The Golden Rule is universal, not individual or national isolationism or superiority.

The story of religion - of faith, and of humanity - has moved in the opposite direction.

The notion of the superhuma n ancestor, of whatever ethnicity, is a myth.  Even the concept of a set, unevolving "race" is pure fabrication.

Diversity is strength.  That which adapts, survives; that which grows in symbiosis with other organisms grows stronger through the process, whether it's genes in a body, individuals in a society, or plants in a garden.  Ecosystems, the meta, are not bred from competition, but co-dependency, the whole that becomes more than the sum of its parts.

Trump, like so many others before him, have sought power by dividing and conquering, by building walls, demonizing specific ethnic, religious or other groups.  Bannon does the same thing, but less from a selfish desire for power than a tribal sense of power that is his tribe's by right.  Like he's being nudged on by a little voice on his shoulder.

Neither Trump, who could care less, nor Bannon, who has gone deep into the "alt-right" land of divide and conquer/tribal superiority and nativism have thought much about the "traditional" origins of such notions.  Nor whom they are attributed to.

If they did, they might find themselves puzzled by the nature of his game.

He's pleased to meet them, though - and hopes they guess his name.