Monday, November 13, 2006
The Right Wing Rationale XIII: Hitler = Stalin = Communism = Socialism
What the right wing understands is that ideas die hard. While a slew of right wing texts bear titles like “Heaven on Earth: The Rise and Fall of Socialism”, we see regimes friendly to Cuba rising in the Americas to the south. Even Daniel Ortega has risen out of his own ashes, dragging in his path ghosts of Iran-Contra and Gazal frames purchased on Fifth Avenue. It is important to keep in mind that our own nation was formed by founders who saw in Classical civilization ideals to emulate: republicanism, democracy, reason and humanitarian values. These ideas had to wait over a thousand years to be brought to life again while, in the interim, Europe evolved through a dark, theocratic age and a period of absolute monarchy. The right wing knows that the battle is not really quite over. And so, they must tell their version of history, tell it and retell it until it becomes accepted truth, received wisdom. “The poor shall always be with us” is a far more comforting text for them to take than “Workers of the world unite; you have nothing to lose but your chains.” There can be no heaven on Earth, just as Augustine knew that the City of God could not exist on Earth, that more than that, earthly pleasures are elusive, dangerous, and perhaps best not pursued at all.
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Looking in a somewhat different direction, its also interesting to see how the right wing also equates Middle Eastern and Islamic regimes with Hitler and Stalin, particularly with regards to Iran. Nevermind that the Iranian elections of 2005 that put Ahmedinejad were tallied and reported accurately (even though conservative religious forces in the Grand Council barred any reformist candidates from running), and have most of the auspices of democracy, but likening confrontation with the Islamic Republic or other Muslim governments to the Cold War or WW II as many administration officials have marks a lack of understanding of most of the subtleties and not-so-subtleties of these societies. Of course, this dynamic comes rapidly into focus when one realises that most of the academics who are now our Iran and Middle East 'experts' were actually trained to study the Soviet Union, and the USSR's demise left them scrambling to find new areas of specialisation. This in particular explains why so frequently pundits and policy-makers describe these regimes using the vocabulary of fascism, communism, and authoritarianism as that is the vocabulary in which they were trained! Just look at the academic pedigree of our current Secretary of State!
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