Screw You Money

Ah, we are touting the power of reading now.

Of late, a number of references have appeared in the media about the voracious reading habits of the president’s chief strategist who currently appears on the cover of Time. One influential book in Steve Bannon’s universe is The Fourth Turning which reportedly proposes history moves in cycles of 80-100 years—with disastrous global outcomes in the process. My instinct is to be leery of cherry picking historical timelines to forecast events as the world spins on, but I have not read the book and so may be gravely misunderstanding its thesis.

However, another author reported to be a bookshelf favorite of Mr. Bannon has made my reading list. Nassim Taleb’s Fooled by Randomness, The Black Swan (my favorite of the 3), and Antifragile: Things that Gain from Disorder (Bannon’s favorite perhaps) are hardly a 3-pak of escapist weekend reading.

Taleb, an academician and investor and speaker among other pursuits, is by most estimates fabulously wealthy and so can by his own assessment go forward freely in his life on the basis of having amassed screw you money. (This wording is a paraphrase and speaks to my personal sensibility.) Consistently, Taleb has chewed on elites without real skin in the game and has been particularly scornful of the powerful who make policy and laws that will not jeopardize their status. 

Bannon, who is reported to be worth around $10-million—chump change to Taleb and Trump—certainly has roasted elites for their sins as he sees them. The recurring theme for Bannon is disruption, or disorder, and very clearly he sees Trump as a tool for, as he has often said, tearing the system apart.

But, here’s the irony—for me at least—should the system be ripped to shreds, anti-elites Trump, Taleb, and Bannon will not be left behind on the island. Why not? Because they too have screw you money.  

Nerd Alert: As counterweights to Bannon’s apparent thrust moving forward, I would recommend two titles: Barbara Tuchman’s The March of Folly: From Troy to Vietnam and A Peace to End All Peace: The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Creation of the Modern Middle East by David Fromkin.

By the way, a former neighbor of mine with 3 children recently was layed off from Boeing in North Charleston. Her weekly unemployment check is $276. Now that is skin in the game. Sans screw you money.