'Democratic Money' & the Tragedy of Anti-Marxism (wasRe:Populism)

[Katha Pollitt]

E Fuller Torrey wrote a book (forget name) about ten years ago about
Ezra Pound's years as a patient at St. Elizabeth's. Torrey, who was a
shrink at St E's after Pound's day and had access to all the relevant
hospital records, thought Pound was not mentally ill, but had been put
away to avoid  an embarrassing treason trial.  While in hospital Pound
was given very special treatment, and no mental health treatment to
speak of-- unless you count conjugal visits from young girlfriend! He
took advantage of this situation to  carry out from hospital an
elaborate correspondence with a white supremacist neo-Nazi (sorry forget
that name too) who was involved in disseminating antisemitic and racist
literature and in bombing synagogues in Florida. According to Torrey,
Pound was a much more hardcore racist and antisemite (not to mention
fascist) than he is usually acknowledged to be.  The literary cult
around him has played a rather obscurantist role here. And getting
around things like calling FDR "Kikey Rosenfeld" takes some doing!

  .Wrote some wonderful poems all the same.

Katha

  I find that when people start talking about the evils of currency, and
how we need to go back to gold, or land, or whatever, a diatribe against
"the jews" is usually not far behind.