At 12:31 PM 11/22/99 -0500, you wrote:
>bill friend writes:
>>But that polemic *doesn't* invariably ground them. In fact, the majority of
>>the writers who have been cited here -- Gregor, Ledeen, Tim Redman,
>>Sternhell (about whom I'd like to second Leon Surette's recommendation) --
>>all present subtle and important discussions of a complicated phenomenon.
>>
>
>
>bill,
>   isn't the burden of the sternhell which surette excerpts
>-"marginalization of fascism," "apologetic interpretation
>of events"...,
>eloquently to argue precisely the pt of the existence
>of a polemical tyranny over this piece of cultural turf?
 
Isn't it pretty ironic to suggest that a "polemical tyrrany" has made it
impossible to speak about *actual* tyranny?
 
Here's what concerns me about this whole line of argument: it suggests that
Pound's support for Mussolini and his race prejudice *cannot* be talked
about. Other people on the list have made similar arguments, suggesting
that that approach ignores the poetry -- as if the Cantos lacked a
political and social agenda, like an 800+ page version of "She walks in
beauty." That seems extraordinarily willful to me.
 
Is there a body of recieved "wisdom" that distorts the historical record of
fascism? Of course. Does that make it impossible or unwise to talk about
fascism? Not a bit.
 
Bill Freind
 
>
>bob
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Bill Freind <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
>Date: Monday, November 22, 1999 7:28 AM
>Subject: Re: Integer vitae scelerisque purum
>
>
>>> !
>>>
>>> bill,
>>>     not exactly...the terms are meaningfull enuf
>>> (didn't i just try to thumbnail "fascism")
>>> but the polemic that invariably grounds them
>>> - thats to say, the winner's narrative
>>> (capitalist good guys, fascist bad guys),
>>> that displaces thereby "the horror" of modern history
>>> onto the popular classes,
>>> is jes the usual speciousness of the cultural hegemon,
>>> bourgeois liberalism.
>>
>>But that polemic *doesn't* invariably ground them. In fact, the majority of
>>the writers who have been cited here -- Gregor, Ledeen, Tim Redman,
>>Sternhell (about whom I'd like to second Leon Surette's recommendation) --
>>all present subtle and important discussions of a complicated phenomenon.
>>
>>> so that i'd say sumpin like,
>>> feel free to absolve yersef of any compunctions
>>> in re ep's purported ideological/racial guilt
>>> ...therz no need to feel ashamed if you find
>>> yersef agree'n with a particular use of the word kike or nigger,
>>
>>Oh, lordy, Bob -- this is ridiculous and it goes well beyond word choice.
>>Pound's anti-Semitism would be comical if it weren't so nasty: he's wrong
>on
>>every count. If you find yourself agreeing with his use of the word "kike,"
>>you've got bigger problems than liking a word which has fallen out of
>favor.
>>
>>Bill Freind
>
>