Page 83 - Šolsko polje, XXVIII, 2017, no. 3-4: Education and the American Dream, ed. Mitja Sardoč
P. 83
p. mclaren ■ from a city on the hill to the dungheap of history
whose cabinet is now packed to the brim with billionaire bankers and
hedge fund hucksters.
Maybe we are suffering from some kind of hubristic insanity, the
result of the slow erosion of democracy over the decades, where decen-
cy suddenly became unhinged, something that was, mirable dictu, fore-
seen over half a century ago by the Frankfurt School theorists. In some re-
cent works, I’ve compared Trumpism to Bonapartism, to a type of fascism
that hides behind the screen of democracy. And, Mitja, since this year
marks the 150th anniversary of Das Kapital, the most important work of
that great world-historic personage, Karl Marx, it would be useful in this
current Trump era to draw attention to another of his essays, the 18th Bru-
maire of Louis Bonaparte. Marx is referring to the coup d’état in 1851 in-
volving the nephew of Napoleon I. This is the focus of Marx’s essay, the
rise to power of Charles Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, the third son of Lou-
is Bonaparte, the brother of Napoleon I, and his staging of a December
2, 1851 coup. Louis-Napoleon’s coup enabled him to remain in office and
implement a series of reform programs. His justification for his seizure
of dictatorial powers was his universal popularity throughout France. In
November 1852 he was confirmed as emperor. Trump is well on his way
to crowning himself emperor of the United States. I have never seen any-
one so brazen and adept at exploiting the economic anxieties of the Amer-
ican worker, including the middle class, by fomenting hatred of the ‘less-
er’ races (i.e., anyone other than white) and sowing seeds of nationalism.
His followers pine: If only Trump could be allowed to persecute the po-
litically correct feminists, gays and lesbians, the elite Washington politi-
cians, and those who believe in climate change and are allowing environ-
ment regulation to hold back the economy, if only he could crush Black
Lives Matter and Idle No More groups, if only he could destroy the main-
stream media that produces fake news, if only Americans could act upon
his “alternative facts”, then he could make America great again! Millions
still swoon over Trump’s succulent silk suit populism, gleefully cheering
his dark demagoguery, and pompous threats. It remains for many a case
of mass stupefaction. White supremacists are in rapture, holding meet-
ings and giving the Nazi salute. “Blood and soil! Close borders! White na-
tion! Now we start the deportation!” the American Knights of the Klu
Klux Klan, the American National Socialist neo-Nazis, White Aryan Re-
sistance, and the White Lives Matter members chant, raising their shields
and pumping their fists into the air turned toxic with the poisonous acri-
mony of racism and deep-throated cries for a purified white nation. White
nationalist pastors offer the protection of Jesus in their prayers. Does an-
ybody remember the time in U.S. history when 20,000 Nazis filled New
81
whose cabinet is now packed to the brim with billionaire bankers and
hedge fund hucksters.
Maybe we are suffering from some kind of hubristic insanity, the
result of the slow erosion of democracy over the decades, where decen-
cy suddenly became unhinged, something that was, mirable dictu, fore-
seen over half a century ago by the Frankfurt School theorists. In some re-
cent works, I’ve compared Trumpism to Bonapartism, to a type of fascism
that hides behind the screen of democracy. And, Mitja, since this year
marks the 150th anniversary of Das Kapital, the most important work of
that great world-historic personage, Karl Marx, it would be useful in this
current Trump era to draw attention to another of his essays, the 18th Bru-
maire of Louis Bonaparte. Marx is referring to the coup d’état in 1851 in-
volving the nephew of Napoleon I. This is the focus of Marx’s essay, the
rise to power of Charles Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, the third son of Lou-
is Bonaparte, the brother of Napoleon I, and his staging of a December
2, 1851 coup. Louis-Napoleon’s coup enabled him to remain in office and
implement a series of reform programs. His justification for his seizure
of dictatorial powers was his universal popularity throughout France. In
November 1852 he was confirmed as emperor. Trump is well on his way
to crowning himself emperor of the United States. I have never seen any-
one so brazen and adept at exploiting the economic anxieties of the Amer-
ican worker, including the middle class, by fomenting hatred of the ‘less-
er’ races (i.e., anyone other than white) and sowing seeds of nationalism.
His followers pine: If only Trump could be allowed to persecute the po-
litically correct feminists, gays and lesbians, the elite Washington politi-
cians, and those who believe in climate change and are allowing environ-
ment regulation to hold back the economy, if only he could crush Black
Lives Matter and Idle No More groups, if only he could destroy the main-
stream media that produces fake news, if only Americans could act upon
his “alternative facts”, then he could make America great again! Millions
still swoon over Trump’s succulent silk suit populism, gleefully cheering
his dark demagoguery, and pompous threats. It remains for many a case
of mass stupefaction. White supremacists are in rapture, holding meet-
ings and giving the Nazi salute. “Blood and soil! Close borders! White na-
tion! Now we start the deportation!” the American Knights of the Klu
Klux Klan, the American National Socialist neo-Nazis, White Aryan Re-
sistance, and the White Lives Matter members chant, raising their shields
and pumping their fists into the air turned toxic with the poisonous acri-
mony of racism and deep-throated cries for a purified white nation. White
nationalist pastors offer the protection of Jesus in their prayers. Does an-
ybody remember the time in U.S. history when 20,000 Nazis filled New
81
