see below
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-lbo-talk at lists.panix.com
> [mailto:owner-lbo-talk at lists.panix.com]On Behalf Of Michael Pollak
> Sent: Wednesday, February 26, 2003 12:59 AM
> To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com
> Subject: Re: aphorism
>
>
>
> On Tue, 25 Feb 2003 Doug Henwood wrote:
>
> > > Echoes of Yeats' "The best lack all conviction, while the
> worst/are
> > > full of passionate intensity
> > >
> > > Though according to Harold Bloom, this is a fascist sentiment.
>
> Do you happen to remember what his argument was? Because off
> hand that
> doesn't seem like an idea a fascist would subscribe to.
> Fascists were big
> believers in passionate intensity and they thought it was
> precisely the
> best who were animated by it.
>
> Michael
I wondered about that, too. There is even a book on right-wing populism in Canada that uses the phrase as a title:
Harrison, Trevor. (1995). Of Passionate Intensity: Right-Wing Populism and the Reform Party of Canada. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
-Chip Berlet