Gleaning Facebook: "Bring Everything Crashing Down"

 Remember that Steve Bannon has been quoted: “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.”

From a friend's post:

From Heather Richardson, professor of History at Boston College:

"I don't like to talk about politics on Facebook-- political history is my job, after all, and you are my friends-- but there is an important non-partisan point to make today. 

What Bannon is doing, most dramatically with last night's ban on immigration from seven predominantly Muslim countries-- is creating what is known as a "shock event."

Such an event is unexpected and confusing and throws a society into chaos. People scramble to react to the event, usually along some fault line that those responsible for the event can widen by claiming that they alone know how to restore order.

When opponents speak out, the authors of the shock event call them enemies. As society reels and tempers run high, those responsible for the shock event perform a sleight of hand to achieve their real goal, a goal they know to be hugely unpopular, but from which everyone has been distracted as they fight over the initial event. There is no longer concerted opposition to the real goal; opposition divides along the partisan lines established by the shock event.

Last night's Executive Order has all the hallmarks of a shock event. It was not reviewed by any governmental agencies or lawyers before it was released, and counterterrorism experts insist they did not ask for it. People charged with enforcing it got no instructions about how to do so. Courts immediately have declared parts of it unconstitutional, but border police in some airports are refusing to stop enforcing it.

Predictably, chaos has followed and tempers are hot.

My point today is this: unless you are the person setting it up, it is in no one's interest to play the shock event game. It is designed explicitly to divide people who might otherwise come together so they cannot stand against something its authors think they won't like.

I don't know what Bannon is up to-- although I have some guesses-- but because I know Bannon's ideas well, I am positive that there is not a single person whom I consider a friend on either side of the aisle-- and my friends range pretty widely-- who will benefit from whatever it is.

If the shock event strategy works, though, many of you will blame each other, rather than Bannon, for the fallout. And the country will have been tricked into accepting their real goal.

But because shock events destabilize a society, they can also be used positively. We do not have to respond along old fault lines. We could just as easily reorganize into a different pattern that threatens the people who sparked the event.

A successful shock event depends on speed and chaos because it requires knee-jerk reactions so that people divide along established lines. This, for example, is how Confederate leaders railroaded the initial southern states out of the Union.

If people realize they are being played, though, they can reach across old lines and reorganize to challenge the leaders who are pulling the strings. This was Lincoln's strategy when he joined together Whigs, Democrats, Free-Soilers, anti-Nebraska voters, and nativists into the new Republican Party to stand against the Slave Power.

Five years before, such a coalition would have been unimaginable. Members of those groups agreed on very little other than that they wanted all Americans to have equal economic opportunity. Once they began to work together to promote a fair economic system, though, they found much common ground. They ended up rededicating the nation to a "government of the people, by the people, and for the people."

Confederate leaders and Lincoln both knew about the political potential of a shock event. As we are in the midst of one, it seems worth noting that Lincoln seemed to have the better idea about how to use it."

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David Matheny
sharing.

Augusta Spearman
I was wondering if other heard he had stated " Lenin was what he would like to be like".

Augusta Spearman
Lenin did not like people disagreeing with him. He disposed many of them.

Mike Bock
Richardson calls this a "shock event" — a strategy employed by Bannon — but she doesn't make clear what she sees as its purpose.She writes: "As society reels and tempers run high, those responsible for the shock event perform a sleight of hand to achieve their real goal..." What in the world is the "real goal" of Bannon? I'm wondering if the goal is to deliberately provoke terrorist attacks in the U.S. so Trump can do his "law and order" strategy. Moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem would advance that strategy as well.

David Matheny
Trump's pre-text to Martial Law.

Terrell Shaw
Mike! Please correct the spelling! 

My daughter is "Brannon"; Mr. Trump's far-right-hand man is "Bannon".!!!!
JK

Mike Bock
Right.

Clayton Hensley
Mike, she does address this. "I don't know what Bannon is up to-- although I have some guesses-- but because I know Bannon's ideas well, I am positive that there is not a single person whom I consider a friend on either side of the aisle-- and my friends range pretty widely-- who will benefit from whatever it is." We simply don't know if there is a motive here besides "protecting" America.

Donald Murdock
I don't believe her point is to speculate on a goal that is anyone's guess, though Bannon's rhetoric and the actions that have been taken are pretty troubling. Historically, removing power from a legislative body and attempting to discredit valid news sources while creating destabilizing events is a fairly classic pattern leading up to forced change. Psych warfare 101. An uninformed and frightened populace is easily manipulated.

Laurie Craw
Donald Murdock A "frightened populace" now includes all of us who are see good reason to fear the authoritarian, nationalist, rash and destabilizing actions of this president. So I am now afraid that WE will be manipulated as well as those who are afraid of Muslims. The travel ban was the perfect "shock event" to trigger a huge reaction (overreaction?) from the Trump resistance. We must limit our street protests, I think, to avoid playing into their "shock" stategy. No substitute for organizing and getting Republicans out of the majority in the midterms.