Date: 	Wed, 8 Oct 1997 12:22:42 -0800
From: bhandari-AT-yuma.Princeton.EDU (Rakesh Bhandari)
Subject: Re: M-I: Re: Zizek on PKs



>By focusing just on the (unarguably) evil leadership, you're just ignoring
>the issue of what draws millions of people to such movements, or implictly
>assuming that the American masses are full of fascist shock troops.

No, I said that we ignore the American masses who are not drawn to such
movements and often contribute to their marginalization, which is what the
main function of these spectacles are in the first place. At the same time,
Doug, isn't it a bit naive to think that the American masses couldn't
produce a full complement of its very own fascist shock troops. Perhaps
those already predisposed to be so are drawn to the PK, which will in turn
socialize them into this role.  And what did you think about my guess about
their occupational composition?

And what's the big deal that some of them cry in public about having been
irresponsible towards their family. If anything, this underlines their
proto-fascism. Here I will always remain an Arendtian. A sentimental
attachment to the family or a limitation of one's moral horizon to the
family is at the core of all personal involvement in bureaucratic and
systematic evil. I can't remember where Arendt said this, I remember
reading it ten years ago and it changed my life.

Rakesh




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