Date: Sun, 25 Jun 1995 20:26:48 -0400 (EDT)
From: Jim Jaszewski <ab975-AT-main.freenet.hamilton.on.ca>
Subject: Re: Rand is NOT a Fascist! Jeez!



On Sat, 24 Jun 1995, Chris M. Sciabarra wrote:

> On Sat, 24 Jun 1995, Jim Jaszewski wrote:
> 
> > 	This may be where we differ on 'semantics':
> > 
> > 	Simply being an enemy of the Nazis is no proof that one is not 
> > himself a fascist, or will not later slide into it.
> 	I agree... but since fascism is intimately related to 
> nationalism, corporativism, racism, and authoritarianism, and since Rand 
> did not defend ANY of these positions, I would say that she does not 
> qualify as a fascist.

	I am sorry, but that is not how she comes across. She have may 
explicitly denied all such beliefs, but since when do you take an enemy's 
word on something??


> Jim continues:
> > 	The post WWII world is FULL of people who fought the Nazis, but
> > who I would characterize as being just as fascistic as them.
> 	Like who, the Soviets perhaps?

	Sure -- why not?? What makes you think I support most of those 
shits?? You think everyone here who sticks to their marxist guns is some 
cardboard-cutout cartoon commie??

	Look at how with such indecent haste most of the nomenclatura 
turned into instant '_libertarian_' capitalists...


> Jim continues:
> > 	She may have 'opposed' the _explicitly_ fascist opponents of the
> > Western governments (I wouldn't know, but after all, she was obviously
> > smart enuff to know which side her bread was buttered on), but that
> > doesn't mean her 'critique' of U.S. neofascism wasn't an INTERNAL one. 
> 	Being dialectical myself,

	?? !


 I would say that there isn't a critique 
> on earth that is not immanent, that is, internal to its historical and 
> cultural context.. INCLUDING Marx's.

	I think you're dissembling here...


  There is no such thing as a 
> synoptic vantage point on history.

	I think you're avoiding the question...


> Jim continues his commentary:
> 
> >   She saw big 
> > > business as the architects of American statism, opposed U. S. entry into 
> > > Korea and Vietnam,
> > 
> > 	On moral grounds, I'm sure...
> 	Yes, partially on moral grounds,

	That was sarcasm, fella...   |>


 but also because she had a 
> developed critique of the structural needs of statism, which required 
> militarization and imperialism.  

	So she couldn't get away from the objective reality which Marx 
was describing -- big deal.


> Jim continues:
> > 	I call her a fascist because of the company she kept, and because
> > of her bizarre philosophy (what I know of 'Objectivism'), which leads
> > naturaly(?) to this worship of a 'dynamic leader' type who 'keeps the
> > trains running on time' (Gee... where have we seen THIS before..!!)
> 	If we define people by the company they keep, I guess this makes 
> me a Marxist.

	Ya, I'd watch it if I were YOU fella... Big Bro' an' all...!!


  As for worship of a dynamic leader... Rand DID worship 
> competence and productive labor; in this regard, she parallels Marx's own 
> celebration of the synthesizing effects of labor on human development.

	Come now. In 'Atlas Shrugged' she *VERY* clearly showed her belief
that, without a few geniuses to keep it running, the whole world would
fall apart!!

	This is INCREDIBLY arrogant and elitist!! It is what *I* would
call a fascistic sensibility (if not out-and-out etc., etc.)


> Jim asks:
> 
> > 	Wasn't she a Balt?
> 	She was born in St. Petersburg in 1905, and was a Russian Jew, 
> emigrating in 1926. 

	Ahhh... the Zionist connection..

	I'll bet she's the philosopher emeritus of the ADL...  |>
(Kinda describes the personality of those I've seen buying or studying 
her works...)


> On my Rand book, Jim remarks:
> > 
> > 	A Sisyphean effort I'm sure...
> 
> 	Well, if Jim's response is any indication... :)

	You GOT it, pardner..!



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   Jim Jaszewski   <jazz-AT-freenet.hamilton.on.ca>

   WWW homepage:   <http://www.freenet.hamilton.on.ca/~ab975/Profile.html>

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