In a review of a new biography of Rene Descartes published in The New Yorker this week (Nov. 20, 2006), author Anthony Gottlieb points out that Pope John Paul II “went so far as to suggest that the origins of Nazism and Communism are somehow linked to Descartes.” Right wing historians and intellectuals have repeated this equation practically since the moment Hitler came to power in Germany. Now, with the end of the cold war, the equation is repeated so often that it has taken on the trappings of what in football would be called a pile on, something equivalent to kicking a dead horse. There is, of course, a danger in rebutting this notion, namely, that one leaves oneself vulnerable to the charge that one is defending Stalin or that one is even a “Stalinist.” Nevertheless, I believe that this bit of casuistry is dangerous and needs to be corrected. During the whole of the 1960s and in the years since, I encountered many who would call themselves Marxists, but rarely, if ever, met a self-designated Stalinist. In fact, with the appearance of Nikita Krushchev onto the political stage, we saw the repudiation of Stalin’s regime by the Soviet Government itself. On the other hand, it was the same Nikita who pounded one of his shoes on a desk at the United Nations and predicted, “We will bury you.” He who laughs last… Although the Soviet Union appeared ultimately to have self-destructed, right wing intellectuals seem now in a hurry to bury communism so deeply that there can be no danger of its resurrecting itself. Will there ever be a better time? Yet even the right wing propagandists do not have the temerity to create an equation between Nazism and Communism as philosophies per se. Who has ever read a work of Nazi philosophy? Certainly Mein Kampf does not merit the term. So, if you can’t take on a whole philosophy, use the old straw man; make Stalin a symbol; then let that symbol stand for the philosophy. Crude, but, unfortunately for the sake of clarity of understanding, it works.
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
The Right Wing Rationale X: Hitler = Stalin = Communism = Socialism
In a review of a new biography of Rene Descartes published in The New Yorker this week (Nov. 20, 2006), author Anthony Gottlieb points out that Pope John Paul II “went so far as to suggest that the origins of Nazism and Communism are somehow linked to Descartes.” Right wing historians and intellectuals have repeated this equation practically since the moment Hitler came to power in Germany. Now, with the end of the cold war, the equation is repeated so often that it has taken on the trappings of what in football would be called a pile on, something equivalent to kicking a dead horse. There is, of course, a danger in rebutting this notion, namely, that one leaves oneself vulnerable to the charge that one is defending Stalin or that one is even a “Stalinist.” Nevertheless, I believe that this bit of casuistry is dangerous and needs to be corrected. During the whole of the 1960s and in the years since, I encountered many who would call themselves Marxists, but rarely, if ever, met a self-designated Stalinist. In fact, with the appearance of Nikita Krushchev onto the political stage, we saw the repudiation of Stalin’s regime by the Soviet Government itself. On the other hand, it was the same Nikita who pounded one of his shoes on a desk at the United Nations and predicted, “We will bury you.” He who laughs last… Although the Soviet Union appeared ultimately to have self-destructed, right wing intellectuals seem now in a hurry to bury communism so deeply that there can be no danger of its resurrecting itself. Will there ever be a better time? Yet even the right wing propagandists do not have the temerity to create an equation between Nazism and Communism as philosophies per se. Who has ever read a work of Nazi philosophy? Certainly Mein Kampf does not merit the term. So, if you can’t take on a whole philosophy, use the old straw man; make Stalin a symbol; then let that symbol stand for the philosophy. Crude, but, unfortunately for the sake of clarity of understanding, it works.
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Reply to Vince
http://sedentarythought.blogspot.com/
11/14/2006 2:43:13 PM
It seems to be a pleasure and necessity of the ruling controlling of the masses in the name of whatever authority and timeless.
Its epithet is implicated in exploitation and name; keeping the populace busy for the will of the elite.
Historically true and deliverable by ‘might and right’ is a universal engine!
Could it be ‘might and left?’
It seems unless we have the transparency of historical accuracy and discussion that are most relative in your blog we will live in a social /cultural stasis – individually and collectively / East or West / North or South.
The ‘right wing’ interpretive commentary of the western historical narratives expressed in your blog- of this date – is best applied to ‘right wingness’ in Middle East countries. They indeed emulate the industrial accomplishments of nuclear powers of China and India just to mention two non-western accounts.
In the language of Right or Left that is always wrapped in moral metaphoric exclamations as brick and mortar of the taking to tasks all less than literate and in all lands.
I would suggest right and left as dialectical mechanism that are evolutionary and independent of the societies from ancient times to today’s civilizations.
We might continue to share this formative discussion and I congratulate you on the well-presented images with applied journalistic identifiers.
Please continue to explore this debate as I would be happy to see you include the South American approach to such formulations.
Yet please provide the your next schematic a Democratic – Progressive – gender / sexual neutral – materialism / liberalism alternative.
Conclusively, it is the earthly pleasure to rule with metaphorical Mars and Venus dichotomy. As such we will determine the real double helix of life on earth. The spirals of kinetic political communications are inherent in the body politics.
Poem
Our diamond DNA Soul
By: Joseph J. Amato
Our diamond DNA is the soul’s actions turning spirals of heaven, earth, and hell.
Make your music higher always; yet be careful as you spiral in each dimension you chose to live.
When others about are playing the downward spirals of hell’s destruction it is best to remember there are for you heaven’s mystical imagination and earth for your dancing feet to raise your diamond on high.
When your life turning / spiraling energy’s is over and your diamond is past to another generation know that what you decided to play on the stage of life is written into the pages of eternities.
How high does the spiral climb, well until no words are left to say; it true.
How low does the spiral descent, well until the words are said to release you to higher spirals.
How on earth do I just spiral without the highs and lows, well if we knew we wouldn’t write this poem.
But know this; the earth is itself a diamond playing to the universe itself.
So it is that we will spin, spiral, and bounce our diamond soul in the heart and smiles from land to land as we also become a spiral for others diamonds moments in the poems we tell and live in kind spirit.
11/7/2006 2:08:28 PM
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