[lbo-talk] Americas Vichy Left vs. Michael Moore

Chris Doss lookoverhere1 at yahoo.com
Wed Jul 14 22:22:52 PDT 2004


--- Gregory Geboski <greg at mail.unionwebservices.com> wrote:

OK, so he's a self-defeating rightwinger.

In the US at least, he seems to be addressing a Left audience (to the point where he's offering advice on how to be more effective!), so, yeah, "inconsistent" seems the least of it. Rhetorically, he's isolating himself from the very audience he purports to address. Not a strange thing in US intellectual culture, where the maverick is often praised for being nothing more than a maverick. But ironic in this context, to say the least, given his argument. ---

Ames is addressing both an American and a Russian audience (as the intro to the piece should make clear; the eXile is a Russian newspaper, even though few Russians would be able to read it, let alone know what a "pimp-slap" is).

The eXile says that it combines "extreme left and extreme right" political ideas. It's no coincidence that it's idol is National Bolshevik Party leader (and damn fine writer) Eduard Limonov. E.g.:

It's a Great Time of Struggle

An eXile Roundtable with Edward Limonov By Edward Limonov

Last week, National Bolshevik leader and eXile hero Edward Limonov sat down with eXile editors Mark Ames, John Dolan and Jake Rudnitsky to discuss politics and literature. What follows is the first part of the roundtable, in which we cover Russian and world politics at the turn of the century. Next issue we will print our discussion about Limonov's own books, the practical side of writing, and his views on what makes for quality literature.

eXile: Ok. I think our readers and we are interested in a lot of things. A lot of fans who find you fascinating and...

Edward Limonov: Obnoxious.

eX: No I think you're a hero for a lot of our readers and obviously us as well. So we have a lot of questions that are both theoretical and about what lessons we can take from you, as well as general critical questions about your writing... EL: I'm embarrassed. eX: If we can make you embarrassed we've already succeeded. So why don't we just start with the questions. We wrote down a whole bunch of them and will start rattling them off. If you were al Qaida what would you do next? EL: Al Qaida? I think bin Laden is an invention. I think he died five or six years ago but is an American invention. [laughs] In my opinion he is very useful guy. No, seriously, I refuse to endanger myself. eX: What's your favorite revolutionary movement today?

EL: You see they're all not universal. They pursue their own goals and sometimes they are very similar. I respect them; I guess the nations have a right as long as they can have their own life, their own religion, whatever as always. And there it's already a new age that has made forbidden some of the states, like the Iraqian state. I not an admirer of the Iraqian state but I guess it was very traditional and very Asian kind of a state. Nothing horrible for some people. And the Russian state existence seems also strange cruel and unadmissible for the US statutes. I think that all of the kinds of the state and nation – the reality - are permissible. I think we shouldn't make a universal. It was probably thinked by God or whoever created us to have such rich difference. And now the general the planet suffers from imposed universality of civilization.

http://www.exile.ru/187/its_a_great_time_of_struggle.html

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