> Tim Romano <[log in to unmask]>  quotes Ezra Pound on the subject of the
relations
> between peasants and landowners in Italy, without comment.  [WEI]

Not entirely 'without comment'. Wei, as master of the subject-line, you
should know to look there, too.  My subject line was "Pound / Fascism /
Feudalism".  I also placed some emphasis on the final sentence (all upper
case, since not everyone can get italics on their mail reader):

> PRIMITIVE SENSE OF EQUITY
> AND JUSTICE OR LATIN COMMON-SENSE.


You ask:

> What does
> Pound's observation have to do with "EQUITY" in any meaningful modern
sense
> of the word?  And what are the assertions about the Latin sense of equity
> but undisguised racist statements about the supposed superiority of the
> Latin race?

I would interpret Pound's remarks here in light of his praise of Jefferson's
view of good government as that government which governs LEAST.  Pound
writes, "PRIMITIVE sense of equity".  Implicit in Pound's comment is a
RETREAT from invasive "red-tape" government and a return to more "organic"
(to use his own term) social bonds.  In effect, he is saying that government
has usurped the place of paideuma.  When he speaks of  "Latin common-sense",
Pound means that the Latin race was sufficiently unified to support a
paideuma...  not that it was genetically superior.  People who point to
Japan's largely mono-racial makeup, as one cause of the country's low rate
of violent crime, are not saying that the Japanese are a "genetically
superior" race.  Your friend and mine, Monty Python's Michael Palin, is one
such person.

Tim Romano