Ideological Warlords

Discussion

John Ganz:

“I would like to propose a complementary concept to “hyperpolitics.” A thought I’ve had since the beginning of the “populist era” is that this is could be called an “ideological warlord era” or “era of ideological warlords.” The Warlord Era was a period in Chinese history from 1916 to 1928 where the entire country fragmented into statelets and different regions were controlled by military cliques. These warlords had very limited conceptions of their interests: they were ideologically incoherent, preferring instead to jealousy guard their own territory and power. No single warlord was able to dominate or lead the system: they would ally with one another briefly to stop a threat and then turn on each other quickly afterwards.

In the contemporary United States, the cultural-political terrain is divided by ideological warlords, that can briefly lead or organize little armies of supporters but can’t accomplish any kind of hegemony. For instance, look at the importance of the Mercers, the Kochs, and the DeVos families on the Right. (Or, the Trumps for that matter.) Or, more controversially, Soros on the left. In the absence of any social consensus, many conflicts involve a prominent figure taking an ideological stance and hoping to rally enough support to make it hefty enough to be effective. Look, for instance at the battle now taking place over Spotify: it is mediated through the high personal profiles and differing cultural cachets of Joe Rogan and Neil Young. Elon Musk practices this form of cultural warlordism as well, attracting a flock of supporters with his particular form of personal brand-politics. We can also see this in its pre-ideological manifestation in rabid fandoms, like those around K-Pop stars. Another sense of “identity politics” is revealed here: the identity of the “warlord” directly embodies a cultural or ideological position.

Although these numerous “warlords” may team up periodically, and may even represent similar ideological and cultural tendencies, no group or individual has been able to achieve hegemony, convincing the society at large that they stand for something greater and more universal than their own limited interests. How would the ideological warlord era end? Obviously, it would require some kind of reunification—but even after Chiang Kai-Shek nominally reunited the country, warlords remained powerful and had to be placated.”

(https://johnganz.substack.com/p/the-era-of-ideological-warlords)