Hitchens At War

Chip Berlet cberlet at igc.org
Thu Sep 27 07:40:01 PDT 2001


Hi,

The Ali critique is very thoughtful, but I would argue there is not a contradiction between being a neofascist and believing in "propaganda of the deed." In the US individuals involved in the neofascist (neonazi really) Christian Identity theology and the Church of the Creator have gone on murderous shooting sprees. And what was the Oklahoma City bombing if not propaganda of the deed? McVeigh was a neonazi, not really that close to the militias but trying to recruit them toward his more militant position.

It really is accurate to use the term clerical fascist to describe SOME of the fundamentalist muslim groups that are totalitarian, theocratic, palingenetic, and demonizing (creating scapegoats).

Contrary to Ali's description of interwar fascism, there were branches of Catholic clerical fascism in Croatia, Hungary, Lithuania, etc. and even a reactionary pre-Christian clerical fascism in Rumania.

On the palingenetic core of generic fascist ideology Roger Griffin, Oxford Brookes University (UK)

http://www.brookes.ac.uk/schools/humanities/Roger/PALCORE.htm

-Chip Berlet

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----- Original Message ----- Sent: Thursday, September 27, 2001 6:23 AM Subject: Hitchens At War

http://www.counterpunch.org/ Hitchens At War By Tariq Ali September 26, 2001

<<SNIP>>

To say that the Manhattan and Pentagon bombers are 'fascists with an Islamic face' can help whip up a war-frenzy, but it solves nothing, apart from being a wrong-headed analogy. Pre-war fascism was based on both mass and corporate support, which they retained till it became obvious that they were going to be defeated. Likewise the European 'post'- fascists today: Haidar in Austria, Fini in Italy, Le Pen in France and their friends in Britain base themselves on a certain degree of popular support.

The groups that carried out the attack on the United States are reminiscent of another tradition. They are propagandists of the deed. They imagine that by sensational terrorist actions they can exert sufficient pressure to change the course of politics and history. It is pressure politics of the sort, which deliberately excludes any attempt to mobilize mass support. Someone once referred to them as 'liberals with a bomb'. They believe that the spectacle of murder and mayhem can effect change and usually they're wrong.

<<SNIP>>



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