Amos's River of Justice

Tag: Rene Guenon

  • Steve Bannon is a Pretend Traditionalist

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    I recently found a key date that confirms my suspicions about Steve Bannon’s so-called Traditionalism.  I’ve long suspected that Bannon isn’t a real traditionalist. To be clear, Bannon is not a real traditionalist in the same sense that Donald Trump was never a real candidate.  Bannon piggy-backed on this conversation in the same way that Donald Trump piggy-backed on Bernie’s campaign.  We know Trump had no constituents when he started.  He had to hire actors to attend his first rallies. Steve Bannon is a pretend Traditionalist. He’s just trying to give depth and meaning to his audacious power-grab.

    Teitelbaum’s Book Probably Gives Bannon Too Much Credit

    In his book about Steve Bannon and the populist right, The Return of Traditionalism and the Rise of the Populist Right, 1 Benjamin R. Teitelbaum says he first became aware of Bannon’s Traditionalism in 2016. On the one hand, he gives Bannon too much credit as a traditionalist. But I’m comparing Bannon’s version to the Traditionalism of the early twentieth century. It’s always had authoritarian tendencies, but it used to have a coherent worldview.  He’s right as far as he goes–as an ideology it has shed its coherent worldview and lost much of its luster. All that’s left is its claim to authority.

    Amid startling political gains for nationalist, anti-immigrant forces in the twenty-first century, Traditionalists on the right appeared to be carrying on with a fantasy role-playing game-like Dungeons & Dragons for racists…It was the sort of thing that “serious,” practical-minded activists on the radical right fled from as they charged toward burgeoning political opportunities and the chance to brand themselves as viable leaders.

    Teitelbaum goes on to describe his surprise that ‘an individual with such remarkable power and influence’ (Steve Bannon) had been recorded name-dropping Traditionalism’s key figures (like Rene Guenon).  He couldn’t believe someone like Bannon would even know about Traditionalism.

    What is Bannon Really Up To?

    Teitelbaum was right the first time.  Steve Bannon fits his definition of a typical Traditionalist on the right. However, Bannon represents its modern guise. He has no ideas of his own so he uses Traditionalism as a cloak.  He’s really a hyperactive trickster whose first impulse in 2016 was to steal the show.

    At the Least, Traditionalism Deserves to Be Correctly Represented as a Historical Phenomenon

    I’ve been talking about Rene Guenon since 2015. I wrote What Does Theology Have to do with Life? in March of 2015.  I wrote Transgender Rights, Same-Sex Marriage and Women in November of 2015.  I wrote Can We Talk About Patriarchy? in May of 2016.

    We would do well to ignore the piggy-backers and freeloaders on the conversation.

  • Transgender Rights, Same-Sex Marriage and Women

    Reading Time: 4 minutes

     

    Germaine Greer is now being criticized for saying that trans women are not women. Although demand by trans women that the world call them women makes many women uncomfortable, it’s the women rather than trans women who have to defend their position. Same-sex marriage also presents problems for women. In my opinion it may be even more threatening. It is becoming increasingly clear that transgender rights, same-sex marriage, and women’s rights, are connected.

    Must Women Defend Their Territory?

    Often women defend their territory by talking about the difficulties of being female as opposed to the privileges. Discrimination and humiliation seem to be the only proof we have of a unique right to call ourselves women.

    This is not Greer’s fault but it’s pretty sad. Worse, it doesn’t stop the intrusion. Trans women answer that they’ve experienced all the same trials and therefore, they are women.

    Women counter by saying that the ability to bear children makes them women.  This doesn’t seem to impress trans women, but I think the women on to something. The child-bearing role of women is relevant to both categories, same-sex marriage and transgender rights. It’s also relevant to heterosexual relationships, but this is not acknowledged in a way that benefits women.

    Terms and Definitions

    There are many other sources of confusion here, not least of all the terms.  But at least it’s easier to agree on terms and definitions. If there are differences, most people are willing to accept correction.

    A transgender individual who has transitioned, whether or not surgery was involved, doesn’t want to be called a transwoman because this would indicate that he or she hasn’t transitioned. The term ‘trans woman’ is preferred to transwoman because trans is being used as an adjective describing a specific kind of woman. However there are some who prefer to just be called women.

    I was surprised to learn that none of these terms refers to sexual orientation. Also transgender people are not necessarily interested in same-sex marriage.

    How Does Same Sex Marriage Affect Women?

    Even though same-sex marriage is different from the transgender issue, I run into a similar problem when trying to argue its effects on women. My first piece of evidence is pretty straight forward—same-sex marriage was legalized at a time when female reproductive rights were under attack. Subsequently, same-sex marriage has competed for attention with reproductive rights.

    Reproductive Rights

    And now we’re getting to the heart of the matter. There is no comparison between the issue of same-sex marriage and reproductive rights. That’s also true between gender rights and reproductive rights. Compared to reproductive rights, same-sex marriage and gender rights are vanity issues. Women know this, but childbirth is treated as trivial to the point where they don’t quite believe it themselves. Instead, the focus is discrimination and misogyny. That situation should be more remarkable than it is. What it’s really saying is that  the place of women has been turned  upside down. They should have more privileges, but they don’t even have the right to claim their own unique identity.

    Bride Wealth

    The importance of the role of childbirth was once recognized in the custom of bride wealth, but bride wealth has never been practiced in the United States. Therefore, it’s impossible to argue that it’s threatened by same-sex marriage. However, it would be if it still existed. That is meaningful.

    Child Custody

    The other problem that same-sex marriage ignores is child custody. The irony here is that it was only the payment of bride wealth that made men equal to women in custody matters. Now even custody is in question.

    Childbirth as a Moral Obligation

    We may not like to hear that the childbearing role is our only claim to superiority, probably because this idea is now used against us. Conservative men insist that women are privileged, usually with the purpose of increasing the birthrate. But this is an anachronistic claim–the value remains but we have no memory of the privilege. Patriarchal lip-service is not now and never has been an element of social organization.

    Background Noise from Right-Wing Traditionalists

    After I wrote about Hermes in India I tried for quite some time to discuss my concerns about Hermetic influence in the United States. People aren’t really concerned that Hermes can morph into, say, Jesus Christ, or that he has taken over our medical system. I worry that the LGBTQ issue remains under the radar in the same way.

    Often, same-sex couples are unaware of the ideological meaning behind transgender manifestations. Ellen Degeneres for example is baffled by the fact that Caitlyn Jenner is Republican and not particularly supportive of same-sex marriage.

    I don’t know Jenner’s affiliations, but the possibilities are endless. I found a movement while researching this article, the North American New Right, and this movement has taken an interest in Jenner. She’s been interviewed on the Counter Currents website. This article is no longer available, but here is a book by the same interviewer, James O’Meara.

    To this way of thinking the only true homosexuality is the type practiced by those mythical bands of men who roamed the earth before the birth of human culture. A modern example would be the Nazi männerbund. This movement thinks same-sex marriage is irrelevant if not silly, and it mocks what it calls the ‘Fake Left’ for insisting that homosexuals are just like everyone else in their desire to be married and raise children. Homosexuality should be an escape from marriage, they say, rather than a reason for it.

    Rene Guenon and Baron Juius Evola

    The vogue of using a mythical past in pursuit of political aims was popular in Europe before and during the world wars. Rene Guenon represented this type of Traditionalism (denoted with a capital ’T’). Thanks to Guenon’s influence, so did Albert Gleizes. The North American New right acknowledges Guenon’s influence, and, surprisingly, it also acknowledges the Traditionalism of Baron Julius Evola.  Evola was a Traditionalist of another sort.  His ideas are more closely associated with Nazism than those of Guenon.

    Gender Rights are enshrined in law

    In the United States same-sex marriage is water under the bridge, and compared to the ideological aspects discussed above it may prove to be relatively harmless. But I doubt it. When was a smoke screen ever harmless?

    It’s only when you consider the casual nature of marriage and the fact that the only real criteria for it is ‘true love’, that it becomes outrageous to deny same-sex partners the right to marry. If you ignore all of these factors, legalizing same-sex marriage seems progressive. True love has become a substitute for the economic necessities that acknowledge these realities. And these realities are inseparable from the role of women. Without the appropriate economic arrangements, married life, while it’s marginally better for women than single life, is a cynical proposition.

    Elizabeth Stoker wrote a helpful article for the New Republic on Traditionalism from the Catholic point of view, Francis Agonistes, New Republic, March 1, 2015. (It’s no longer available on the same website but you may be able to find a copy.)

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