Bannon's Prophecy
Steven Bannon: Trump ‘puppet master’ believes America must be reborn through fire
Like Hitler, Bannon's ideas are almost arcane.
Bannon's Prophecy
Steven Bannon: Trump ‘puppet master’ believes America must be reborn through fire
Like Hitler, Bannon's ideas are almost arcane.
CATACLYSMIC CYCLE
The source of Bannon’s dark vision of America’s future is the book The Fourth Turning: What Cycles of History Tell Us About America’s Next Rendezvous With Destiny.
Time Magazine was told in a profile on Bannon during last year’s election campaign of his wholehearted embrace of its message.
It’s almost astrological in its assertion of simplistic cycles. It believes America’s fate is tied to a supposed spiral of human behaviour that can be used to predict the future.
It’s not a new idea. One baktun is the cycle of the Mayan calendar which supposedly predicted the end of the world in 2012. Spanning 394 years, each baktun was believed to represent a distinct ‘age’ or ‘era’ or civilisation.
The pattern that has caught Bannon’s eye, however, originates with the Ancient Greeks. It’s a cycle called a “saeculum”. Like the baktun, the end of a particular saeculum would bring about the dawn of a new age. But each saeculum is made up of ‘turnings’ — periods of about 20 years each — which define a new stage of each cycle. The ‘fourth turning’ is the last phase before a cataclysmic change.
For some reason, in Bannon’s mind, this Greek cycle of prophecy applies particularly to the United States.
The last “turnings” experienced by the US were The Revolutionary War, The Civil War and World War II.
All were sparked by an incendiary event. All had a period of regeneration. All led to disaster and conflict. All ended up in an era of reconstruction and new national order.
According to Bannon’s writings, he believes there must be a reckoning — a cataclysmic conflict — to bring about the new order he desires.
This involves war in the Middle East. And with China.
This could explain his behaviour during his eight months as chief White House adviser and National Security Council member.
Two words Nut Job