Using Prior Revolutions, is Another American Revolution Near?
August 17, 2017Update: Just a day later, Steve Bannon is out.
I’m still listening to the Revolutions podcast. Back in March, I was thinking about the vilification of technologists. I thought it was a niche idea then. Now it’s clear it’s far too niche.
At this point in the podcast, I’ve listened to the revolutions of England, America, France, Haiti, and South America. As Mike Duncan has said, it’s hard to define when the French Revolution starts and ends, so instead I’ll say I’m in his second season about a French revolution.
It got me thinking about recent events and if we are close to a second American revolution. What would that look like? What would it take? Is America headed for a new kind of civil war?
This is all speculation. I’ve tried to follow different news sources, some matter-of-fact, some hysterical. None of this is conclusive, it’s just a thought experiment comparing what’s happening now to what’s happened before. No one can predict the future, but it’ll be interesting to look back on some of my thoughts during the moment. I’m only comparing them to the revolutions from the podcast at the moment. Plenty of others have compared them to past authoritarian takeovers.
One commonality is that all of those revolutions were a group fighting against central authority. Some evolved from there to fighting against a new central authority (really all except the American Revolution).
Are either of those what we’re really seeing here with Trump? It doesn’t look like it. He and his supporters aren’t fighting a central authority. Seemingly, that’s not who or what they have a problem with. And they’re stirring more angst than other operators. Much of that stirring is their reaction to what they see has a loss of “American” values, but they’re the source of the vitriol.
While Bannon, who wants to destroy to the state, may have something else in mind. If, by stirring, something reactionary happens, that could give their group an excuse to impose authority on the rest of the country. I don’t know what kind of authority that looks like. But that overreach is just what would cause a civil war. The reaction to a grasping for power would be the most sure-fire way to do it. Then the state would be destroyed.
Bannon having this ultimate goal makes sense. That’s could be why he gives interviews to cause confusion.
That Trump would want to use an excuse to become a dictator would also make sense. Based on the complaints about Obama, it seems like that’s the job he thought Obama had. When you look at his tweets and imagine that he thinks Obama was elected supreme ruler, it all makes sense.
Bringing it back around to the podcast and the revolutions there, the main parallel is England. The central authority had an issue with the other ruling bodies. By dissolving them using an emergency as an excuse, the king created a backlash. Trump though, needs to take a step before what happened in that case can happen here. He’s still not king. That’s one difference (among many, to be sure). He needs something to make him one.
And if Bannon has his way, this will be just what happens before a civil war starts, one that will take down the state.
And if Trump just wants to be king, making ridiculous statements to divide and antagonize and bully is just how he gets a rise out of people. A rise he can then overreact to to exert authority.
I don’t know that this is what they want or how it will happen, but it is how we’d get to a new American revolution
