[lbo-talk] Breivik declared insane by Norway

Wojtek S wsoko52 at gmail.com
Tue Nov 29 12:58:04 PST 2011


[WS:] I am really surprised that you pulled this canard, Carrol. This was pretty much the Italian Communist Party line in the 1920s - they persistently refused to acknowledge that the rising fascism (Italy really pioneered this form) is a qualitatively different phenomenon than the "traditional" bourgeois state, and they paid for that error of judgment dearly.

Arguing that fascism is just another form of capitalist hegemony is based on the "pars pro toto" fallacy - that fascism maintains some forms of property relations that capitalism does, then it must be a form of capitalism. In reality, fascism is an impediment to capitalist development, as the cases of Spain and Portugal, which have the longest history of prolonged fascist rule, demonstrate. Their economies sucked until they become normal capitalist states.

Wojtek

On Tue, Nov 29, 2011 at 2:23 PM, Carrol Cox <cbcox at ilstu.edu> wrote:
> This reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of the dynamic of capitalist
> society. If we got rid of all the fascists & assorted wingnuts capitalism
> would remain as vicious and destructive as it is now.
>
> It really is a system and not bad people that accounts for modern
> domination.
>
> Carrol
> -----Original Message-----
> From: lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org [mailto:lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org]
> On Behalf Of Wojtek S
> Sent: Tuesday, November 29, 2011 12:19 PM
> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
> Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Breivik declared insane by Norway
>
> [WS:] Phillip Zimbardo (the Stanford Prison study guy) once said that
> when one person is having delusions we call it mental disorder and
> lock him up in an institution, but if many people share those
> delusions, we call it a political point of view and protect with
> constitutional rights.  This is not to question the professional
> judgment of the psychiatrists who examined Berivik, but rather to
> express regret that we cannot give the same treatment to all fascists
> and assorted wingnuts.
>
> Wojtek
>
>
> On Tue, Nov 29, 2011 at 12:16 PM, socialismorbarbarism
> <socialismorbarbarism at gmail.com> wrote:
>> http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-15936276
>>
>> "Norway massacre: Breivik declared insane"
>>
>> "The two psychiatrists who interviewed him on 13 occasions concluded
>> that he lived in his 'own delusional universe where all his thoughts
>> and acts are guided by his delusions', prosecutors told reporters."
>>
>> In a sidebar:
>>
>> "Norwegians have reacted with surprise and disbelief at the report
>> stating that Breivik is criminally insane.
>>
>> 'I don't see how Behring Breivik's opinions set him apart from war
>> criminals, who are tried in court as if they are sane,' said one man."
>> ___________________________________
>> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
> ___________________________________
> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
>
> ___________________________________
> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list