Posted April 27, 2002

'Leftists' Not the Problem

I think Justin's problem is not so much with "leftists" as with postmodern leftists.  Before the left was hijacked by PC nitwits thirty years ago, it was very much an outgrowth of the enlightenment.  The entire left, from classical liberals to libertarian socialists, was part of the same tradition.
 
The decay of feudalism and the rise of enlighenment culture had revolutionary potential for human freedom and well-being.  Commentators as diverse as Immanuel Wallerstein on the left and Hilaire Belloc on the right agreed that the manorial class system was initially on the way to being supplanted by a free, egalitarian society: a decentralized, mutualist, free market society of small peasant proprietors, associated artisans and self-governing free cities. 
 
Instead, the process was halted and a new iron-heeled class system of state capitalism was imposed by robbery (i.e., primitive accumulation) and conquest (the crushing of the free towns and villages by absolute monarchs).  The enlightenment heritage of science and technology, originally created by the free cities, was harnessed to the new state capitalist system.
 
I would add, though, that the Third World might be a little less brutal today if it had been left to develop on its own.  The problems there result not so much from any inherent flaws in their traditional culture, as from forcible conquest and the decimation of their civil societies – not to mention the expropriation of their peasantry by foreign-backed oligarchies.  Most of the TW starvation today results not from overpopulation, but from their own "enclosure movement" in which local landlords evicted the rightful proprietors to raise cash crops for ADM.  Nehru found a direct correlation between the level of poverty in the various regions of India with the length of time they'd been under British rule.   One reason the West is so much more pleasant to live in is that our ruling classes are inside the tent pissing out.
 
The left needs to get rid of its knee-jerk PC idiocy and reclaim the heritage of the Enlightenment as its own.  The population here in the core era is so much freer than the rest of the world because ordinary people are so much more likely to resist the state when it steps over the line.  And that tradition of hell-raising is a Western tradition we should be proud of.  God bless the DWMs.

~ Kevin Carson

Tolerant

Regarding Mr. Le Pen, it is curious that the neo-con and liberal media in this country should be screaming "xenophobe," "racist," etc. because Mr. Le Pen identifies the immigration of large numbers of Muslims from North Africa as a threat to French culture. Since September 11, the same media has done everything it could to whip up anti Arab and anti Muslim bigotry and paranoia: justifying the imprisonment without charge of hundreds of Muslim immigrants; advocating 'regime changes' for Muslim countries that have not attacked the US; excusing the murderous Israeli assault on Palestine, and; even going so far as to suggest that the Western nations might reform "backwards," "violent" and "corrupt" Muslim folkways to make them more in tune with the liberal, democratic values we claim to have.

Compare the content of the editorial pages of the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post from the last 7 months to what Mr. Le Pen has said about Muslim culture and what he thinks French immigration policy should be and Mr. Le Pen comes across as the more tolerant and respectful party.

~ Lloyd G.

Immigration

I'm a moderate liberal who avidly reads [Justin Raimondo's] ... column. I actually check every other day to see if you have a new one up.

I generally agree with many of your views, however your defense of Le Pen is somewhat hard to swallow. While you bring up a lot of good points about Le Pen being misquoted and taken out of context, the hard fact remains that the man is a xenophobic dinosaur, completely out of touch with what the French population wants. Much like our own President, who continues to amble forward towards World War III because his administration thinks it has a mandate.

Le Pen is a relic and although he received a bigger-than-expected share of the vote, he still will only speak to those whose anger is misplaced.

The immigration problems both France and the U.S. face do not outweigh the benefits and richness that people from other countries can bring to our nations.

~ Dave B., Ohio

Nationalist Bourgeoisie Enraged

It was, in fact, a Fascist writer who defined Fascism as "the party of the nationalist bourgeoisie enraged." His name was Maurice Bardeche, whose 1961 opus What is Fascism? begins, disarmingly, "I'm a fascist writer." He was also the author of brilliant monographs on Proust, Balzac, Stendhal, and Celine. His theory was that most intelligent people were fascists without knowing it. Somewhat self-serving?

~ Joe P.

Steam Statism

Raimondo, you're woefully wrong about the West as some bastion of freedom, liberty, truth and democracy and all that frumious Bandersnatch. Your argument is more of a red herring, if anything, along with [the argument of Dave Stratman, editor of NewDemocracyWorld.org, which] ... overplays the blame game and scapegoats wealth and power.... (As St. James so distinctly summarised, "From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?" James 4:1.)

You really need to stifle yourself, Archie; such bellicose verbosity is disgusting besides boring.

Of course no one is claiming the Backtalk letters should have a reasonable measure of civility and God-forbid, even strive to rise above the "better dead than red" jingoism of hate-mongering lunacy so common to the "might is might" crowd of FreeRepublic, for instance. I shouldn't be all too surprised that letters to the editor will be used as a punching bag on occasion....

If you must have hate to vent, steam the correct vermin: statism and all its sickening, devilish devices of coercive authority. "Beware the Jabberwock, my son!"

~ David d'Apollonia, Canada

Justin Raimondo replies:

Whatever you're smoking seems like some pretty strong stuff.

Morally Superior

In [Justin Raimondo's] ... reply to Mr. Dave Stratman ("Elite Culture") you claimed that "the West is morally, politically, and economically superior to the Arab world in every way."

I agree with you that the West is politically and economically superior, but I just don't understand the part about being morally superior!

~ Hanan A.

America's Greatest Ally

Time after time after time I read Israel is America's greatest ally in the Middle East. It's obvious to me that America is Israel's greatest ally in the world (with Turkey and Russia close behind and China onside just in case) but what have they ever done for you? Surely there must be some basis for this claim to greatness? Saudi Arabia allows thousands of US troops to garrison on its soil so Israel must've done some pretty impressive bending over backward to top that one right?

When I think of US-Israel international relations I think of the USS Liberty attack, the Suez invasion, the Jonathan Pollard scandal, the recent "arts students" scandal and so on. Do they even qualify as a run-of-the-mill ally like say Norway or Chile? In the context of Soviet influence on Arab governments it might have been the case "by default", but this is clearly not the relevant to today.

Could it be that America's strategic interest in the Middle East is to control oil by preventing Arab prosperity, and a strong, belligerent Israel is the key to achieving this?

~ Adam White, Australia