> CB: Of course ! rightwing is ultimately dumb for us. No matter how fancy
the
> thoughts leading to being rightwing, they are at bottom , poor use of the
> intellect. Good writing form does not save bad content of ideas. Evil
> literary geniuses get no vote.
.
Carrol: This can't be supported. Any text is, among other things, and index entry to possible events or states of feeling/thinking/doing. Or an arrow pointing to such. Consider the following lines in praise of Hitler:
Adolph furious from perception.
But there is a blindness which comes from inside --
they try to explain themselves out of nullity.
(Canto 104)
^^^^^ CB; One might use this or _Mein Kampf_ to try to understand fascism and Nazism. But no need to label Pound or Hitler praiseworthy, public intellectuals. They were anti-public or anti-social intellectuals.
^^^
Hitchens was banal both as a leftist and a rightist, because his texts never pointed to anything that wasn't either banal to begin with or wss reduced to banality by his lust for a smartcrack that would show how hip he was. I heard him speak once in Chicago, and had mostly forgotten what he said in the first part by the time I was listening to the last part of his talk. You can think about the lines above for a long time, and each time you think of them you can see new things, which are worthwhile for leftists to think about too.
^^^^ CB: Like what are some of the things you thought of in thinking about them for a long time ?
Sure you might gain insights from what rightwingers say, but they draw the wrong _conclusions_ from their insights. In praising or denouncing them as intellectuals, it is important to emphasize their dumb conclusions from their smart insights.
^^^^^^
And they might also lead to thinking about the different sources of appeal of different forms of reaction. Bush & the DLC are moving us toward a police state, but no one will ever say of _anyone_ now in D.C. or there for the last two decades that he/she is "furious from perception."
^^^^^ CB: What is the important insight in saying "furious from perception "?
^^^^^
Pound was wrong about Hitler -- but don't focus on that; focus on how Hitler provoked or encouraged that sort of wrongness. And you can't learn that from anyone who never even felt the attraction.
Carrol
^^^^ CB: I can see some importance in learning about the feelings of attraction to Hitler, but I don't see learning and understanding that as some major intellectual breakthrough. So , why would somebody get big points in a contest of intellectuals for having explained why people were attracted to Hitler ? Especially when they went on and concluded that it wasn't such a bad thing to be attracted to Hitler ? Empathizing with being attracted to Hitler is not a sign of good intellect. It is a sign of abuse of intellect.