December 26, 2018

"With support from Steve Bannon, a medieval monastery could become a populist training ground."

WaPo reports:
[Benjamin Harnwell] a 43-year-old Briton who is one of Stephen K. Bannon’s closest associates in Europe...  hopes to transform [Trisulti] monastery into a “gladiator school for culture warriors.”... The halls with centuries-old oil paintings would serve as classrooms where students could learn “the facts” — the worldview espoused by Bannon...

“Nothing we’re doing is just in the moment,” said Bannon, who has personally helped to fund the academy while also offering consulting to nationalist parties through his new Brussels-based group, The Movement. “It’s deeper — to be passed down.”

The site became available because the resident monks were thinning in number and couldn’t manage the upkeep.... Harnwell acknowledged that the local reaction to his winning bid, announced by the Italian government last year, was “largely negative.” The backlash has diminished, he said, as Italy has formed a populist government whose far-right League party has drawn close to Bannon...

The academy ["Academy for the Judeo-Christian West"] is scheduled to open next year in a temporary spot in Rome, then in 2020 at the Trisulti site. But before its students can revolt against modernity, the monastery needs its share of modernization. It needs plumbing, wiring, roofing and sewage treatment. It needs bathrooms in the dormitories. It needs Internet access...
Hypocrisy is almost always funny, but has WaPo establish that this is a "revolt against modernity"? Is the "Judeo-Christian West" not modernity?

Anyway, I love the photo with the caption "Harnwell dotes on his cat while planning for the school" (showing Harnwell looking at a cat).

47 comments:

The Gipper Lives said...

Bannon looks monkish.

mccullough said...

Hogwarts for populists. We need a MAGA academy in the US. Maybe use WestPoint in a few years

Ron Winkleheimer said...

Got to love the scare quotes around “Judeo-Christian values”.

Sebastian said...

"Is the "Judeo-Christian West" not modernity?"

Yes and no.

Adding Judeo to Christian is a modern notion.

Treating the West as a religiously defined civilization is a premodern notion.

Much modernization did, or aimed to do, away with Judeo-Christianness. How much of it is left in the actual culture of actual contemporary societies is a tricky question.

MikeR said...

So he's what, opening a college? And they'll have [strike]gender studies[/strike] populist studies. Big news!

Fernandinande said...

According to the google reviews, the most populist time to visit is between 11 AM and noon.

Dave Begley said...

Too late for Europe to be saved. It's lost. Bannon is wasting his time and money.

Kevin said...

Progressivism is about hailing the progress you like, while regarding the progress you don’t to backwards people who can’t let go of the past.

Shouting Thomas said...

The key is getting people back into the habit of attending weekly church services.

Issues of gay/female clergy and gay marriage created a schism in the mainline Protestant congregations over the past 15 years. For instance, the Lutheran Church split in half, with the churches refusing to accept the gay/feminist agenda renaming themselves "Lutheran Evangelical."

Result... congregations split in half and an even deeper decline in church attendance. Also, more churches are going bankrupt and closing their doors.

chuck said...

The comments at the WaPo are a hoot.

Shouting Thomas said...

The venue for passing on those Judeo/Christian values is synagogue/church.

Lyle Sanford, RMT said...

only on my first cup, but, "but has WaPo establish" looks like should be "established"/

Howard said...

Bannon not homotransphoebic... He claims libtardarian

Howard said...

I prefer Viko-Celtic Pagan values. Those whom hue to Middle Eastern monotheistic chastody belts deserve their Islamic brothers wrath

PuertoRicoSpaceport.com said...

WaPo comments are always entertaining. 2nd comment:


I wonder what scumbags are bankrolling this monstrosity and what's the most convenient wall to put them up against.

But the commenter's progressive tribe aren't fascist. O, no.

I've had people tell me, and seem to believe it, that one of the main differences between progressives and fascists is that progressives don't kill people for political beliefs.

Perhaps, though I could show some counterexamples. But I would say that the reason American progressives don't commit mass murder is because they tend to be squeamish and don't think they can get away with it.

Strip that think veneer of law (and armed citizens. Thanks, 2A) and we would surely have death camps.

John Henry

DavidD said...

So the monastery is going from a place for Judeo-Christian thinking to ... a place for Judeo-Christian thinking.

PuertoRicoSpaceport.com said...

We would surely have death camps if progressives got into power and thought they could get away with them.

John Henry

PuertoRicoSpaceport.com said...

A bit off topic but why Judeo-Christian?

Why not Judeo-Christian-Muslim? Muslims are "People of the Book" as well.

Not so much the New testament, though they do recognize Jesus as a great prophet. Certainly the OT, though.

John Henry

narciso said...

Exactly that's why they are doing it, I lost affair amount of respect for Bannon, after the whole deal with wolff, but hes otherwise on point.

I Callahan said...

Why not Judeo-Christian-Muslim? Muslims are "People of the Book" as well.

Read Howard's comment above...

Howard said...

John Henry cut from same cloth as CAGW Alarmists.

rightguy said...

I think Bannon should franchise the concept and establish similar institutions at sites of failed (or soon to fail) American universities.

PuertoRicoSpaceport.com said...

Howard,

So you are saying we should not worry about global whatsit? CAGW as you call it.

How about that! We actually agree on something.

John Henry

Mary Beth said...

It sounds like area residents and some commenters on the WaPo site think it would be better if the monastery remained a monastery, but none of them are rushing forward to support it through donations or by becoming monks. It's weird for the article to use scare quotes about "Judeo-Christian values" while bemoaning the loss of the monastery as a religious building.

In regards to the "swept-back hairstyle", who else that was pictured with that article could be described that way? I see a tourist, who could definitely be described that way, and the monk, whose hair is as "swept-back" as Harnwell's. I'm not sure what this proves, other than it's just another part of that article using labels and descriptions that don't have any real meaning.

mtrobertslaw said...

Many progressives believe that, on balance, Western Civilization has not been good for humanity. It's not surprising that they take a very dim view of Bannon's project.

Howard said...

Worrying is for women's. Deliberate action like what Musk does is The Macho Response

Howard said...

Bannon's hair is combed like we all did in California during the 70's. He can still rock big hair and it makes cucks jealous

YoungHegelian said...

Is the "Judeo-Christian West" not modernity?

Not if yer the WaPo.

mockturtle said...

A kind of counterbalance to Soros?

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

The left media is still trying to portray Bannon as the power behind the president, long after Trump dumped him. Terry Gross did the same thing on "Fresh Air".

Sam L. said...

I see "the facts" and understand that "the facts" are, in fact, not facts. As Sgt. Joe Friday said, "Just the facts, ma'am."

Rick.T. said...

Short tour of the monastery:

https://youtu.be/M3ClgoomlMU

n.n said...

The Judeo-Christian West launched modernity through a religious philosophy that was not selective and opportunistic, and a general philosophy that recognized and advised a separation of logical domains, most notably the scientific logical domain or near-frame.

Nichevo said...


Howard said...
I prefer Viko-Celtic Pagan values. Those whom hue to Middle Eastern monotheistic chastody belts deserve their Islamic brothers wrath

12/26/18, 8:48 AM


They had a good run but they lost. It's been tried since. Last widely known popularizer of your chosen ethos was a one-balled Austrian paperhanger named Adolf. Ask him how it worked out.

YoungHegelian said...

@Mary Beth,

It sounds like area residents and some commenters on the WaPo site think it would be better if the monastery remained a monastery, but none of them are rushing forward to support it through donations or by becoming monks.

Much less signing on for lifelong vows of poverty, chastity, & obedience.

I mean, eeeeewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!!!

JaimeRoberto said...

This makes me wonder what people at Wapo think of when they hear "Judeo-Christian values". For that matter, what do I think when I hear it? I tend to think of the development of the West since the Enlightenment, rule of law, scientific progress, the value of the individual, and lots of stuff that's codified in the Bill of Rights. I'm guessing that people at the Wapo go further back in history and think of witch burning.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

JaimeRoberto: This makes me wonder what people at Wapo think of when they hear "Judeo-Christian values". For that matter, what do I think when I hear it? I tend to think of the development of the West since the Enlightenment, rule of law, scientific progress, the value of the individual, and lots of stuff that's codified in the Bill of Rights. I'm guessing that people at the Wapo go further back in history and think of witch burning.

If you think anything unique and worth a damn about the West started only with the Enlightenment (including stuff like "rule of law" and "scientific progress"), and rummaging for anything "further back" only turns up witch-burning, you need to read more history.

Howard said...

Nichevo: xtiantity is a thin veneer on top of us pagans. Hence the Easter Bunny, July 4th, Halloween and Santa Claus are the major celebrations of modern liberal democratic republics. But buy all means, keep to your hair shirts, flagellates and shit sandwiches to avoid the eternal party in Valhalla.

Howard said...

The real values Bannon is promoting are the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution.

n.n said...

Populist, democracy, or of the People... well, "persons", selectively, anyway.

mockturtle said...

Some of us think the Enlightenment was the beginning of the end.

ken in tx said...

I never heard of the term "Judeo-Christian values" until Hefner criticized them in his Playboy philosophy series.

Howard said...

Jesus Mockturtle. The enlightenment led directly to the American Revolution and the US Constitution, which includes the second amendment and the rights for dipsticks to buy bumpstocks. You are horribly off message.

wildswan said...

They used to say Judeo-Christian-Greek civilization which meant Rationalism combined with Christian values. Anyhow, that is what I was taught by the nuns and priests back in the day. So that's what I'd like to see come back. Also I'd like to see a revival of the ability and the desire to read literature. And abolish social media. Identity politics seen as foolish. Monocultures of the mind seen as susceptible to blight. Budweiser sold in Milwaukee suburbs. Football seen as a game. You may say that I'm a dreamer ...

mockturtle said...

Howard blasphemes: Jesus Mockturtle. The enlightenment led directly to the American Revolution and the US Constitution, which includes the second amendment and the rights for dipsticks to buy bumpstocks. You are horribly off message.

I meant spiritually, Howard, not politically.

Howard said...

Mockturtle the fall of man when Adam ate the apple was the beginning of the end, spiritually. Blastphomy yourself, girlfriend