I think you mean "Gobineau," not "Gobelin" or "Goblin." "Gobelin" is a tapestry. Barkley Rosser -----Original Message----- From: Greg Nowell <GN842 at CNSVAX.Albany.Edu> To: lbo talk <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com> Date: Tuesday, April 27, 1999 6:08 PM Subject: Henwood's query and a note on different racisms.
>Henwood:
>How much play is the Hitler's birthday connection
>getting? I was just at a
>meeting full of urban sophisticates and only one or two
>out of a group of
>ten were aware of it.
>
>Nowell: I've seen it in the three papers I usually
>read (NYT, LAT, and our local Times Union).
>But this is extremely screwed up Nazism if that's in
>fact what it is. Just like it's hard to pin the
>"theory of a race war" on the Tate/LaBianca murders
>(all whites) way back when in L.A.
>
>I note in passing that not all racisms have the same
>flavor. Gobelin was one of the major 19th century
>theorists of "race" and supposedly an influence on
>Hitler and other 20th century types. But Gobelin's
>writing all accepted the *inevitiability* of racial
>interbreeding. I call it entropic racism: he thought
>that it was *normal* for one race to conquer another
>and then interbreed with the conquered race. Most of
>the historical basis is on the barbarian invasions
>post-Rome. In fact most of his attnetion to "race" is
>focused narrowly on differences among what we would
>call "white Europeans." Gobelin's conclusion was that
>*inevitably* the human species would become
>mongrelized, and tend away from heroism towards
>mediocrity. There is not a shred to indicate that he
>thought liquidiation (of inferior races) would be
>preferable. Incidentally, he also thought that the
>French were mongrelized vis a vis the Germans (even
>though he was French).
>
>Nazi racism, vis a vis Gobelin's variant, is profoundly
>radical, becuase it proposes that *something be
>done.* Goblin would have argued that it was
>"unscientific" to expect a conquering race not to
>interbreed with the subject race(s). -gn.
>
>
>--
>Gregory P. Nowell
>Associate Professor
>Department of Political Science, Milne 100
>State University of New York
>135 Western Ave.
>Albany, New York 12222
>
>Fax 518-442-5298
>
>
>