>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Wojtek Sokolowski" <sokol at jhu.edu>
>To: <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com>
>Sent: Thursday, September 27, 2001 4:52 PM
>Subject: Re: Sociology and Explanations (Re: Hitchens responds to critics
>
>
> > Ravi, you are still making an assumption that bin Laden and Co is a
> > reaction to the wrongs of the US policy. Following that logic, Eastern
> > European pogroms or Nazism should be seen a reaction to the wrongs
> > commmitted by international Jewery. At this point one may ask "what
>wrongs?"
Yes, I guess that is the question. So, your argument is that the analyses of the wrongs of US policy are as deluded as Nazi propaganda?
But actually, following that logic, the appropriate analogy wouldn't be the wrongs of international Jewry, but the wrongs of the Treaty of Versailles. And the connection between the latter and the rise of fascism in Germany is surely no longer a matter of contreversy.
>Fascist movements often espouse poplist ideologies to attract more
>followers that may sound similar to the ideologies espoused by socialist
>movements, such as attacks on capitalism, international organizations,
>wealthy individuals, moral decadence etc. But make no mistake - they are
>very different types of movements.
Good grief, *of course* they are very different types of movements. But that hardly means that they cannot arise out of a similar set of historical circumstances.
>As I said before, what bin Ladin and company say is a mere excuse and not a
>reason. What they are against is not specific US policies but modernism
>and its "perils" - equality, secularism, rationality, democracy..
Because democrats have reasons and theocrats have excuses, right?
In fact, bin Laden has over and over again targeted US policy in Saudi, and his moment of real radicalization against the US was when the troops stayed in Saudi after the Gulf War. To dismiss his grievances as being "outside history" because you despise his politics is simply complacent.
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