I managed to get through 10 years of architecture schooling without learning Phillip Johnson was a fascist. (Which jives with the overall trend of having learned absolutely nothing in architecture school)
New York City kind of was governed as an interlocking series of rackets for most of the 20th Century. Joan Didion's essay on the Central Park Five gives a lot of good detail on this. So one could say that until Trump went national, all he legitimately knew about politics was the rackets and gangs of New York.
A related term I like is Weber's "patrimonialism". I understand Weber primarily uses it to describe traditional authoritarian regimes, but I came across it in Fukuyama's Origins of Political Order, where like Banfield's "amoral familism" it's the engine driving vicious cycles of institutional decay. The word "patrimonialism" calls to mind the traditional father-figure who accrues public resources to create a dynastic legacy, while also being broad enough to encompass rewarding non-kin loyalists.
Fukuyama failed to foresee a Trump-like figure imminently emerging in the US, but I still found his books shed light on what Trump represents.
Yeah. As the NY Appeals court once again demonstrated, there is no rule the upper-class won't bend or break, and pretty much no amount of money lost that will make them give up their combover boy. It's not shocking but it is amazing that they've been doing this for 40+ years. Collectively the NY upper-class must have poured tens of billions of dollars down this human rathole and they will not give him up. And they've given rich guys up before (Michael Milken? Bernie Madoff? Epstein, eventually) so what is it? Why can't the money guys and the finance creeps and smug upper-classers bail on this guy? And what is it with New York specifically?
elm
i have the book on preorder john so just waiting for it to get in my hot little hands
I've thought for a while that Trump was Roy Cohn's greatest (ha!) and most avid student. He's certainly taken Cohn's dictum to never admit guilt or weakness seriously.
Overgeneralizing a bit because there's lots of regional variation, but India accommodates a fairly large number of criminals and gangsters, as such, in their electoral politics while still maintaining a robust national commitment to democracy and democratic values. We seem increasingly headed for Mafia Raj but are also warming up to strongman rule which seems like the worst of both worlds.
Trump reminds me of Berlusconi, he tries to resemble him in many ways. Do you remember when Berlusconi met Obama family and he looked Michele with this Italian gesture. That was Al capone. I personally suspect Mafia had connections with many American Presidents, including Obama, actually they’re from Chicago. This time trump is most corrupted one and he is actually running to gain more power. What is absurd was when he said the other day he doesn’t want Prince Harry in US, that is most crazy thing I heard. Italian Mafia impacts many elections around the globe, they’re powerful & influential.
I managed to get through 10 years of architecture schooling without learning Phillip Johnson was a fascist. (Which jives with the overall trend of having learned absolutely nothing in architecture school)
I does however track very much.
New York City kind of was governed as an interlocking series of rackets for most of the 20th Century. Joan Didion's essay on the Central Park Five gives a lot of good detail on this. So one could say that until Trump went national, all he legitimately knew about politics was the rackets and gangs of New York.
Right thats what I'm saying
A related term I like is Weber's "patrimonialism". I understand Weber primarily uses it to describe traditional authoritarian regimes, but I came across it in Fukuyama's Origins of Political Order, where like Banfield's "amoral familism" it's the engine driving vicious cycles of institutional decay. The word "patrimonialism" calls to mind the traditional father-figure who accrues public resources to create a dynastic legacy, while also being broad enough to encompass rewarding non-kin loyalists.
Fukuyama failed to foresee a Trump-like figure imminently emerging in the US, but I still found his books shed light on what Trump represents.
Yeah, Dylan Riley has used that term in reference to Trump.
Yeah. As the NY Appeals court once again demonstrated, there is no rule the upper-class won't bend or break, and pretty much no amount of money lost that will make them give up their combover boy. It's not shocking but it is amazing that they've been doing this for 40+ years. Collectively the NY upper-class must have poured tens of billions of dollars down this human rathole and they will not give him up. And they've given rich guys up before (Michael Milken? Bernie Madoff? Epstein, eventually) so what is it? Why can't the money guys and the finance creeps and smug upper-classers bail on this guy? And what is it with New York specifically?
elm
i have the book on preorder john so just waiting for it to get in my hot little hands
I've thought for a while that Trump was Roy Cohn's greatest (ha!) and most avid student. He's certainly taken Cohn's dictum to never admit guilt or weakness seriously.
Overgeneralizing a bit because there's lots of regional variation, but India accommodates a fairly large number of criminals and gangsters, as such, in their electoral politics while still maintaining a robust national commitment to democracy and democratic values. We seem increasingly headed for Mafia Raj but are also warming up to strongman rule which seems like the worst of both worlds.
Trump reminds me of Berlusconi, he tries to resemble him in many ways. Do you remember when Berlusconi met Obama family and he looked Michele with this Italian gesture. That was Al capone. I personally suspect Mafia had connections with many American Presidents, including Obama, actually they’re from Chicago. This time trump is most corrupted one and he is actually running to gain more power. What is absurd was when he said the other day he doesn’t want Prince Harry in US, that is most crazy thing I heard. Italian Mafia impacts many elections around the globe, they’re powerful & influential.