[lbo-talk] Bohemian Grove

[Joseph Wanzala]

But Chip, the political scene in the US (and Europe) *has* moved to the 
right without the help of the marauding proto-fascists you worry about. What 
Zizek wrote in the New Left Review about the role of the marginalized 
right-wing is directly relevant here and shows that there has been a shift 
to the right by liberals who manipulate the spectre of the 'far right' like 
Le Pen etc. to distract from their own rightward shift.

"Plain to see, in fact, is the structural role of the populist Right in the 
legitimation of current liberal-democratic hegemony. For what this 
Right—Buchanan, Le Pen, Haider—supplies is the negative common denominator 
of the entire established political spectrum. These are the excluded ones 
who, by this very exclusion (their ‘unacceptability’ for governmental 
office), furnish the proof of the benevolence of the official system. Their 
existence displaces the focus of political struggle—whose true object is the 
stifling of any radical alternative from the Left—to the ‘solidarity’ of the 
entire ‘democratic’ bloc against the Rightist danger. The Neue Mitte 
manipulates the Rightist scare the better to hegemonize the ‘democratic’ 
field, i.e. to define the terrain and discipline its real adversary, the 
radical Left. Therein resides the ultimate rationale of the Third Way: that 
is, a social democracy purged of its minimal subversive sting, extinguishing 
even the faintest memory of anti-capitalism and class struggle."
http://www.newleftreview.net/NLR23603.shtml


>From: "Chip Berlet" <cberlet at igc.org>
>Reply-To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
>To: <lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org>
>Subject: RE: [lbo-talk] Bohemian Grove
>Date: Wed, 21 Jul 2004 18:25:42 -0400
>
>Hi,
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: martin [mailto:mschiller at pobox.com]
> > Sent: Wednesday, July 21, 2004 12:33 AM
> > To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
> > Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Bohemian Grove
> >
> >
> > But do you see it as more likely to be effective than current
> > progressive efforts?
> >
> > Martin
>
>
>I think that proto-fascist and progressive movements are contending for
>the loyalty of mass bases in the United States.  I worry that fascism as
>a social movement can grow quickly, and while I think it is unlikely one
>could take state power, a powerful fascistic movement would move the
>U.S. political scene far to the right as politicians at first catered to
>it. Similar to the role of Kahane in Israel or Le Pen in France. I think
>that demonization, scapegoating, and conspiracism help build fascist
>movements rather than progressive movements.  I think there is
>substantial historic evidence that this is true.
>
>If I did not think that progressive movements will ultimately triumph, I
>would just go fishing.
>
>-Chip Berlet
>
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