File spoon-archives/marxism-international.archive/marxism-international_1997/marxism-international.9709, message 280


Date: Mon, 15 Sep 1997 00:04:52 -0400 (EDT)
From: louisgodena-AT-ids.net (Louis R Godena)
Subject: Re: M-I: Re: Charges of anti-Semitism



Paul Gallagher (that's a new one!) writes:

>I would like (not that my likes make much of a difference here!) to see 
>Godena defend his enthusiasm for Samuel Huntington, as well as his other
>peculiar ideas about the nation and nationality. In particular, how does
>he reconcile Huntington's ideas with Marxism. With what other New Right 
>icons does he hold sympathies? He has quoted MacFarquhar approvingly. I fear
>for Godena's soul!


I fear Paul has fallen into the trap set by our sly friend from Middle
Tennessee who, having been howled into backing away from Mr Goldhagen, now
accuses me of "enthusing" over "right-wing ideologues"!  Surely, a case of
the kettle calling the pot black, if there ever was one.  Well, great stuff,
and all free to m-i subscribers.  

For the record, though, my "enthusiasm" for Professor Huntington consisted
of a couple of posts detailing his (then) new book on the coming (in his
view) "clash of civilizations" (i.e., the West versus the rest of humanity).
I thought it a useful antidote to much of the triumphalism saturating the
media in the wake of the "collapse of Communism".  Our Middle Tennessean
would have none of it.  Though he had not seen the book, he set about his
disciplinary tasks with the following bit of irrefutable logic (a Middle
Tennessee sub-speciality, I am told).  A> Professor Huntington is a swiller
of "right wing" "ideologies".  B> Professor Huntington is the author of *A
Clash of Civilizations*; therefore <C, *A Clash of Civilizations* is
_nothing but_ a cesspool of said "right wing" "ideologies".  

Now, I have never paid taxes to the Kingdom of Middle Tennessee, but if I
did, I would invite the Local Grantor of Tenure (of which I am sure there
are several) to give this matter some attention.  After all, if one's
eminence is predicated upon successfully lecturing others on the vagaries of
logic, shouldn't one possess more than a rudimentary knowledge of the
subject... oneself?  

So much for "right wing enthusiasms" and its gifts.

Yes, I plead guilty to possessing a number of "peculiar" ideas about the
national question.  Well, let me re-phrase that; I believe there is much to
be learned from a great number of disciplines (in our interdisciplinary
world) about human behavior.  I have never said -- nor do I believe -- that
human society can be wholly explained by some immutable code of innate
behavior.  Human organization, however, following thinkers as diverse as
Claude Levi-Strauss and Regis Debray, does proceed from a certain logic of
self-preservation, which seems to have an inordinate role in shaping both
spatial and political boundaries.  I wished to explore this in the context
of a discussion on nationalism we had --when was it? -- last spring.  I
trust everyone is relieved that the discussion did not go quite as far as my
endorsing the views of Leakey, Sperber, or Liberace.

On to my other suspect opinions.  I remember quoting Roderick McFarquhar in
the context of -- let's see -- the Cultural Revolution (the Great
Proletarian Cultural Revolution, in case my friend Adolfo ever reads this).
McFarquhar sticks in my mind because I once took a course on Stalin with him
(many years ago).  Shortly after Tiennamann Square, I had dinner with him in
Boston.  He asked me about Gus Hall.  I asked him about George Bush.  We
exchanged knowing glances.  One thing, though, his breath, I remember, made
me think "So this is what it's like to stick your head up a dead bear's
arse."   Of course, this was a couple of years before Breath Assure.  And
fully seven before marxism-international.  Paul -- can I call you Paul? --
Make sure you're in the throes of a head cold if you ever meet him. 

Finally (if all this becomes *really* boring, slump forward in your chair).
I agree with the right wingers in only one substantive respect.  My feelings
on gun control are close to those of the inestimable Charlton Heston -- and,
really, is he an "icon" of the "New Right"?; I'll always remember him simply
as "Major Dundee".   No matter, there, as with so many other issues of my
political life, I dwell restlessly within the busy mainstream of American
working life, moving, changing, agape at the complexities of our parochial,
yet unpredictable, lives.

Browsing, as it were, in a con artist's nirvana.


Louis Godena 



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