JB wrote

>
>is THIS a quote from that great imperialist, Ezra Pound?  damn!  the things
>one can learn if one just reads the poetry.....
>

Any quote must be looked at relation to the entire thought of the man.  Are
you arguing on the basis of any particular quote that Pound took a
principled stand AGAINST imperialism?  If one looks at all of Pound's actual
analyses and expressions of his views regarding empire and colonization,
which are contained in numerous passages of his prose writing (and in the
Cantos as well) a picture emerges.  Pound condemned the British Empire, but
lavished praise on the modern Italian fascist empire, on the Roman empire,
and on virtually every Chinese empire (He saw these empires as models for
the expanding axis empires, which would resurrect the ideal of empire via
the national aspirations of Hitlerian Germany, Fascist Italy, and Hirohito's
Japan).

Pound does not simply condemn "colonization,"  or "imperialism", as such, as
one might conclude by looking at a single quote.  He only opposed
colonization by the members of the Western alliance.  Speaking to British
listeners, Pound the broadcaster says,

        Your allies in India are the bunyah.  You do nothing
        in your colonies to compare with the COLONIZATION,
        real colonization as Italians understand it.  Well, I
        won't say you do nothing, but your main line is squeeze,
        squeeze, ruin the natives, exploit 'em"
                                       (Doob, 52).

I can provide dozens of quotes to demontrate Pound's support for the Italian
empire.   And to understand the horrors of Italian colonization of Ethiopia,
you should read Sbacchi, who documents Mussolini's use of poison gas.

Can anyone on this list provide a quote which for one minute sheds doubt on
the assertion that Pound was fully committed to ITALIAN IMPERIALISM?  He
was, I fully admit, very critical of British imperialism.   Did he ever, in
any known public or private utterance, express reservations about Italian
imperialism. Or, what may be more important, did he ever cease to admire the
Chinese empire? Did he ever doubt the glory of the Confucianist imperium,
which has committed some of the worst atrocities in human history, in the
name of the Confucian ideology, and in the belief that an empire governed by
a superior race was the best form of government?   I am looking for the
evidence.

Also, how do you weigh one or two denunciations of British imperialism with
the literally hundreds of passages in the Cantos (in the China Cantos, and
in Rock-Drill, in particular) which praise the emperors and notion of
empire?

Wei




________________________________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com