--- Carrol Cox <cbcox at ilstu.edu> wrote:
The alternative, the notion that it
> is even possible to
> compare rationally the two totalitarianisms, tends
> to produce the
> conclusion – explicit or implicit – that Fascism was
> the lesser evil, an
> understandable reaction to the Communist threat.
I haven't read the Zizek article, but I dont understand why it is irrational to compare Hitler and Stalin. Compare does not mean we absolutely equate them. I, for one, do not draw the conclusion that fascism was the lesser evil (between fascism and stalinism). One comparison we might make is that in both the cases of Stalin and Hitler, there was too much power at the disposal of each man, not enough democratic review. Trivial observation perhaps, but what's irrational about making such a comparison?
What this comes back to is trying to skirt the issue by forcing us into their binary logic, that is making us choose between the two. I vote "none of the above".
-Thomas
<<We are at such a point in mankind's evolution where changed conditions invalidate all our policies that have been so successful even in the recent past, and that presumably have constituted the ideal response to a presumably unchanging and unchangeable human condition. No wonder we are stupefied and confused-but our mistake is the same which many cultures have made before us, namely to force a rigid model upon a fluid reality.
Erich Jantsch - "Design for Evolution: Self-Organization and Planning in the Life of Human Systems"
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