law and transgrssion - was Re: Race & Murder

Wojtek Sokolowski sokol at jhu.edu
Mon Apr 26 15:49:46 PDT 1999


At 05:23 AM 4/27/99 +1000, Angela wrote:
>those presumably with more power than he. this is why anti-semitism must
>have its jewish bankers; nationalist racism must have its merc-driving
>refugees; anti-black racism must have its 'aboriginal industry' - the
>powerful who have deprived him of something, intangible enough to warrant
>being called his Thing. I'm assuming this guy also makes claims about how
>hard he works whilst others get an easy ride 'just for being black'? it's
>all about a fantasy of deprivation, a powerful one, because it's

You bet - everyone is there, Jews, Blacks, Hispanics, Slavs, liberals - you

name it. The point is, however, that analyizing the contents of this drivel means giving it some significance, or motivational weight if you will, an ability to guide nehavior and propel to action.

But I (and presumably Jim h.) argued against such an interpretation. I treat that person's the Nazi drivel not as a cause of his condition, but as a symptom of his problems - in the same vein as tootache is not a cause of toot cavity but its symptom. In other words, the guy is screwed up emotionally, and the social conditons exacerbated his conditon - albeit not by much. His recourse to Nazism is based mainly in that this ideology has such an adverse effect on his adversaries. I bet you a beer that he would use marxism if marxism was so universally hated as nazism.


>in order for racism to put down roots as a popular politics, it must carry
>this kind of populist enjoyment.

I do not think I agree with that premise. Witch hunting and scapegoating are as old as recorded history - but that does not explain the events such as the inquisition, St. Bartholomew's night, pogroms, Kristallnacht, lynching, church burning or Jim Crow. What distinguishes these events from 'popular' prejudice is its institutional character.

Richard Rubenstein (_The cunning of history : the holocaust and the American future_ New York: Harper and Row, 1978) convincingly argues that spontaneous popular riots, such as Kristallnacht, is anti-thetical to institutionalized repression of minorities, because it "shortcuts" the control mechanisms of the totalitarian state, i.e. it is an initiative from below rather than from above. Fascist violence might look to an untrained eye as outbursts of mob behavior, but it is usually carefully orchestarted by the powers that be. "Law and order" "authority toward below, responsibility toward below" and structured institutional order are the essence of fascism.

Most people tend to focus on personal/emotional (hatred) aspects of organizations such as the KKK, while downplaying or ignoring its _organizational_ aspects. But structured institutional order is the key feature that distinguishes fascism from mob riots. The essence of KKK and kindred organizations is not the emotions of this or another kind held by the members, but the institutionalization of a certain set of beliefs and sentiments. In other words, what matters is not what members feel and think, but what the institutional authorities say they should feel and think. That essential feature of fascism was captured in the saying attributed to Himmler "It is I who decide who's a Jew."

To reiterate, the essence of fascism is its hierarchical organization and rigid obedience of formal authority - and not the feelings and beliefs of its foot soldiers.

Wojtek



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