Sunday, August 29, 2010
Our First Ever Open Thread Sunday: Do Glenn Beck and the Restoring Honor Crowd Want a Fascist Coup in America?
I have much to say about Beck's "Restoring Honor" rally. But in re-watching some of the footage, I kept thinking about the rhetorical notes struck there. Am I alone in noticing that Saturday was Beck's dreamy, messianic Reichstag speech moment? Moreover, in watching the rally I kept thinking about how some have argued that fascism will not come to America from the top down. No, it will come from the bottom up in the guise of a failed populist politics. Today, I am again in agreement that those voices may have been more prescient and wise than known at the time.
Some questions for you all.
1. How do you feel about the God, plus country, plus patriotism and America is perfect meme (despite his quick and smart rhetorical evasions on the point) being pushed by Beck and company? Is this not frighteningly ahistorical and scary stuff?
2. Why the return--often very round about and through no small amount of triangulating, obfuscating reason--to the U.S. military as the basis of all that is good in this country throughout the rally? Even Palin tried to shoehorn the military into her obligatory mention of Dr. King and The Movement (she should ask some former African-American GI's about how they were treated upon return to the U.S. following World Wars One and Two for some context for her childish understanding of American history and politics).
3. What were the attendees thinking? Who and what are they defending? Why are they so aggrieved?
4. Dr. King fought for the powerless, the disenfranchised, and the oppressed. Who is Beck fighting for?
5. Formula: God-country-myth of national origin-Sarah Palin as fascist symbol/idol/idealized womanhood (a good Christian, mama grizzly bear who is subservient to the men in her life, yet still knows her proper role in the nuclear family)-Beck as messianic leader-the attendees as the chosen people soon to be dead enders = nascent fascist movement? Yes or no?
6. Inside history buff joke: What would General Smedley Butler say about Glenn Beck's adventures?
7. Final question: did anyone else notice Glenn Beck's bulletproof vest? How soon will Beck integrate this choice of attire into his martyrdom shtick?
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12 comments:
1. How do you feel about the God, plus country, plus patriotism and America is perfect meme (despite his quick and smart rhetorical evasions on the point) being pushed by Beck and company? Is this not frighteningly ahistorical and scary stuff?
No Bro. Chauncey,
It's as historical, familiar, and middle-american mainstream as Gawd's apple pie...., {you just only needed to have grown up in Wichita KS and attended the right school is all}
What amuses me is how effective the long-term creep-tip proliferation of these memes has been - to where you have folk like Cobb spouting chapter and verse and imagining that it's new rather than knowing that it's some stale old stuff warmed over and knowing EXACTLY where it came from.
Okay, I'll play.
1) Agree with CNU, old theme. Huey Long, attributed to Sinclair Lewis (when fascism comes it will be wrapped in an American flag and carrying a cross). It hasn't worked so far, I'm not sure why they think it will work this time. In the end, people don't like self-righteous preachers. They want to see dirt dug up, and characters besmirched.
2)See 1) flag-wrapping. And why is a logical fallacy alwasy employed? The Guvmint sucks, except for one part of the guvmint.
3) "Ba-aah!" No, that's too easy. My highly unscientific survey says no 1 answer is selfishness.
4) Beck is fighting for whomever pays him. Who's paying him? The ruling class. Fact. Before 9/2008, upper 1% of pop. holds 80 trillion bucks. By 11/2008, upper 1% holds 83 trillion. "Potter ain't selling. Potter's buying". Beck and Palin are paid to distract you from the market harvest. The pity is, conservatives apparently endorse and approve of the harvest. I would speculate that conservatives like getting cornholed.
5) See 4) Palin is sucking a meagre drop from the big money teat. Nothing will distract her from that.
6) I'm pretty sure Beck would be grabbed by that potato nose and kicked solidly in those soft watery buttocks by the pointy end of a mud-covered boot all the way to the border.
7) Sorry. Didn't watch.
lol@soft watery buttocks...,
It will be very interesting to see how Mormonism, particularly the separatist/survivalist variant informing Beck's populism, plays in the American mainstream.
It will be interesting to see whether dominionism and mormonism can find compatible common ground.
I got there at around noon yesterday. The crowd was *almost* identical to the 9/12 event of last September. Eight of ten of these jokers are former lap dogs of George W Bush and the majority of them only wish to "restore" power and influence to the Republicans.
There was a small contigent (the remaining 2 out of 10) of apolitical types who were perhpas fooled into thinking that this "Restoring Honor" event was some sort of Christian revival. When I talked with these folks they were quick to ideologically distance themselves from Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck.
A noticeable difference from last year was that this time around Beck had instructed his flock to leave their signs and placards at home. This made for a more peaceful atmosphere but it also made it more difficult to gauge where the crowd was at politically. I'd imagine that this was also a slick way to make the gathering appear to be more diverse and all inclusive than it really was.
When Al Sharpton's group marched past the mass of Beck's followers on their way to the Tidal Basin (future site of MLK memorial) both groups were waving peace signs and hello to each other. Some of this crowd was sporting Obama tee shirts and foolishly chanting "Yes we can." I talked with a guy who was there for the famous 1963 King speech. There were quite a few men and women there who had attended that event.
One last thing that stuck out in my mind was that I noticed that the people attending the Restoring Honor event were allowed to camp overnight in front of the Lincoln Memorial!!! This is a luxury that is not afforded to ANY other group of protesters. The anti-war protesters would have NEVER been able to get away with something like that when they were staging their big rallies a couple of years ago. Everyone but THIS particular group would be hustled away from the premises by the Park Police as soon as the sun goes down. And to put it in a historical perspective, if King and his followers would have tried to camp out along the reflecting pool the night before his speech.... well it might have been a bloodbath.
-JT
Wow, a lot of questions with so few answers. Well, at least not from my troubled mind.
But I do have a few thought on Glen Beck, the military, Dr King, and violence. The church has to be in there... somewhere?
So, although not initionaly intended (written) to answer your questions, i have recently (today)written a post called Glen Beck & Martin Luther King Jr and The Mindless Menance Of violence.
Here... http://careycarey-carrymehome.blogspot.com/2010/08/glen-beck-martin-luther-king-and.html
John Kurman's post regarding Sinclair Lewis and Chauncey's first question got me thinking.
Vladmir Lenin once said that, "Fascism is capitalism in decay".
From what I've read of Lenin's work, and pre-Second World War commentaries, it seems that Lenin meant that fascism is a retrograde death-throw that happens in a society when capitalism/imperialism find themselves in crisis and at the verge of collapse.
He goes on to argue that these capitalist/imperialist societies, instead of moving towards more "productive forces", find themselves completely dependent upon the human factor of fear and moral decay.
Now, obviously, saying that capitalism = imperialism is apart of the normal Marxist meme. Lenin has political and ideological reasons for obfuscating the differences. To separate them undermines his argument.
And he's of course inferring that political Marxism (i.e. Communism) is the productive force that brings society forward. Communism, according to Communists, is supposed to be the final stage of a society's development. However, merely saying something doesn't make it so. So there are a lot of logical pitfalls here which are well outside this discussion.
Either way, to my point:
What I think is interesting in Lenin's observations on fascism is that he says that fascism is retrograde (i.e. retreating or reverting or counterproductive). Perhaps, retrograde in this context can even be read as a cyclical motion that prevents progress, like an anxiety ridden dog chasing it's own tail because it doesn't know what else to do.
It's with this that I find merit within Lenin's statement.
Fasism, be it Italian or German or Spanish or even American, leaches itself onto past symbolism and existing propoganda because it's not and has never been a forward movement of ideas or beliefs. Rather, facism in all forms relies on what Ernst Nolte called "national self-assertion".
Don't let Nolte fool you though - this is just a cheap euphemism a society's active attempt (or perhaps passive allowance) for the establishment of a warped concept of national identity at the price of other people's liberties and freedoms.
And it's here that I am reminded of what Chauncey calls "God, plus country, plus patriotism and America".
Anytime the dominant majority tries to convince itself that it it is being victimized by the minority, you have major problems...
Net of all that stale ideological baggage - Rebel Monkeys has been showing exactly what resource stressed social primates are wont to do when the clampdown comes.
Human social units are no different, they just do a WHOLE LOT MORE self-rationalizing yammering in the course of getting on with it...,
oops...,
technical difficulties?
the above was posted in response to a post from Bill the Lizard which went thus;
John Kurman's post regarding Sinclair Lewis and Chauncey's first question got me thinking.
Vladmir Lenin once said that, "Fascism is capitalism in decay".
From what I've read of Lenin's work, and pre-Second World War commentaries, it seems that Lenin meant that fascism is a retrograde death-throw that happens in a society when capitalism/imperialism find themselves in crisis and at the verge of collapse.
He goes on to argue that these capitalist/imperialist societies, instead of moving towards more "productive forces", find themselves completely dependent upon the human factor of fear and moral decay.
Now, obviously, saying that capitalism = imperialism is apart of the normal Marxist meme. Lenin has political and ideological reasons for obfuscating the differences. To separate them undermines his argument.
And he's of course inferring that political Marxism (i.e. Communism) is the productive force that brings society forward. Communism, according to Communists, is supposed to be the final stage of a society's development. However, merely saying something doesn't make it so. So there are a lot of logical pitfalls here which are well outside this discussion.
Either way, to my point:
What I think is interesting in Lenin's observations on fascism is that he says that fascism is retrograde (i.e. retreating or reverting or counterproductive). Perhaps, retrograde in this context can even be read as a cyclical motion that prevents progress, like an anxiety ridden dog chasing it's own tail because it doesn't know what else to do.
It's with this that I find merit within Lenin's statement.
Fasism, be it Italian or German or Spanish or even American, leaches itself onto past symbolism and existing propoganda because it's not and has never been a forward movement of ideas or beliefs. Rather, facism in all forms relies on what Ernst Nolte called "national self-assertion".
Don't let Nolte fool you though - this is just a cheap euphemism a society's active attempt (or perhaps passive allowance) for the establishment of a warped concept of national identity at the price of other people's liberties and freedoms.
And it's here that I am reminded of what Chauncey calls "God, plus country, plus patriotism and America".
Anytime the dominant majority tries to convince itself that it it is being victimized by the minority, you have major problems...
CNu, thanks so much for saving my post!
Not sure why it disappeared - blog gremlins?
Either way, as a Anthro major in college, I think your Subrealism "gang of monkeys" post is spot on.
blogger's been eating good comments of late...,
anyway, glad to be of service.
how do you think Beck's pseudo-reformed Skousenite mormonism is going to play in prosocial evangelical circles as a collective security club catalyst?
what other competing organizing principles or themes do you see at work on any kind of scale in the country right now?
@Cnu--You took my bait! So nice of you ;) You are correct, so much of this is old but seems new because we didn't expect to see it. Or did we and we are in denial?
@John--You have the benefit of history vision and hindsight. What do you think the next plays are?
@Bill--You know all those folks are progressives don't you. Bringing up Lenin in any conversation is grounds for going to Gitmo! Be careful...
@John Kurman "I would speculate that conservatives like getting cornholed."
That, they do. They are so pathological they really do look up to the people who look down on them.
Facts don't matter to them. Confront any of them with the fact that their screamer station is bankrolled by the Saudis...blank stare or no response or change of subject.
@Chauncey, could we add profesional handkerchiefhead Alveda King to the list?
At a certain point we have to start taking people like her seriously, because she, the Innises of CORE, the dumb bigot pastors who get up and deliver antiblack and antiabortion screeds are making inroads on the white bigot rightwing, usually for symbolic/tokenistic reasons. But tokenism hasn't gone away, it's only gotten worse, especially since the election of Obama.
Anyone paying attention, for instance, to SP's tweets and FB recognizes the differences between these days and days past, when they could be laughed away and written off. Those days are coming to a close. These are people trained for a couple generations now to do what they're doing, which is being 21st c. Black conservative opportunists.
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