Back in the good old days...
...Marxists were smart enough to realize that overthrowing mass-murdering fascists was a good thing. Despite his remarkable failings as a national leader and as a human being, even Stalin had that down pat.
Nowadays it's the Marxists who love mass-murdering fascist military dictators. I guess that's because they understand that fascist military dictators are the enemies of America, and under the "The enemy of my enemy is my friend" principle, Marxists have to defend fascists' right to national self-determination. Even when the fascists use plastic shredders.
This has come to mind once again because Ward Churchill, a Marxist prof at University of Colorado is in the news: some students at Hamilton College are objecting to his giving a speech there, apparently in part because he calls the people who were murdered at the World Trade Center such charming things as "little Eichmanns."
Well, I'm in favor of free speech and as someone I won't bother looking up once said, "Better to be thought a fool than to open one's mouth and remove all doubt." Our friend Ward is intent on opening his mouth at some length, so I say let him. That doesn't mean the students have to like it or even go, though. And I do understand their objection to spending good money to bring him all the way to Clinton New York, but that's part of the expense of college, folks.
The article of Churchill's which seems to be drawing much of the ire (clik above for the link or paste from the bottom) is called: "Some People Push Back: On the Justice of Roosting Chickens." Below are a few quotes. I won't bother with much of the silliness about the jillions we slaughtered in Iraq, apparently for no better reason than Bill Clinton and Madeline Albright grooved on it, or perhaps because their corporate masters did. Anyway:
On mass-murder at the World Trade Center: "If there was a better, more effective, or in fact any other way of visiting some penalty befitting their participation upon the little Eichmanns inhabiting the sterile sanctuary of the twin towers, I'd really be interested in hearing about it."
On the Gulf War: "It was a performance worthy of the Nazis during the early months of their drive into Russia." Well, at least Churchill seems to dislike Nazis. I'll give him credit for that.
On American anti-war protestors: "nobody went further than waving signs as a means of "challenging" the patently exterminatory pursuit of Pax Americana. So pure of principle were these "dissidents," in fact, that they began literally to supplant the police in protecting corporations..." Uh oh. Corporations. And the protestors are doing their bidding. Things are looking bad.
On evil: "Evil – for those inclined to embrace the banality of such a concept – was perfectly incarnated in that malignant toad known as Madeline Albright, squatting in her studio chair like Jaba the Hutt, blandly spewing the news that she'd imposed a collective death sentence upon the unoffending youth of Iraq." This is by a college professor, mind you. I guess he understands the polemical importance of de-humanizing the opponent in order to make acceptable the assault they deserve, but where are the little wriggling feet protruding from Jaba's mouth?
And, of course, (it hardly need repeating): It's all Amerikkka's fault: "Had it not been for these evils, the counterattacks of September 11 would never have occurred." Yup, Osama the Humanitarian would still be building hospitals.
I'd love this if the writer wasn't a professor responsible for helping educate people: "In sum one can discern a certain optimism – it might even be call (sic)humanitarianism – imbedded in the thinking of those who presided over the very limited actions conducted on September 11." The 9/11 Hijackers: Humanitarians engaged in Tough Love. But only a wee bit. Yep. He means it.
I gotta believe this prof put WAY too many mushrooms on his pizza. He's really flying here: "Since they've (Amerikka's victims.TTB)shown no sign of being unreasonable or vindictive, it may even be anticipated that, after a suitable period of adjustment and reeducation (mainly to allow them to acquire the skills necessary to living within their means), those restored to control over their own destinies by the gallant sacrifices of the combat teams the WTC and Pentagon will eventually (re)admit Americans to the global circle of civilized societies. " Not too clearly written for someone who teaches at the college level, but what the heck, you get the idea. Chopping the heads off reporters and other prisoners...oh, excuse me, lackies of their corporate masters is humanitarian tough love. I forgot.
Bummer, there's a downside, tho: "Unfortunately, noble as they may have been, such humanitarian aspirations were always doomed to remain unfulfilled. For it to have been otherwise, a far higher quality of character and intellect would have to prevail among average Americans than is actually the case. Perhaps the strategists underestimated the impact a couple of generations-worth of media indoctrination can produce in terms of demolishing the capacity of human beings to form coherent thoughts." Damn. Slaughtering the little Eichmanns and sending the survivors to re-education camps won't work: we're too dumb and degenerunt.
But hey, wait a sec: If we are so durn dumb and indoctrinated, how can we possibly be responsible for the evils committed in our names? How can we do other than vote for the Demopublicans? Our corporate masters make us. Ward Churchill doesn't address that issue, but I intend to bring it up at my trial.
It goes on and on.
http://passionbomb.com/words/push_roost.htm
A truncated version appears at http://www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH/WC091201.html
which notes it is a mirrored version: http://www.marxmail.org/ward_churchill.htm
That site notes: "The Marxism list is a worldwide moderated forum for activists and scholars in the Marxist tradition". Hence I have concluded, possibly without justification, that Ward Churchill is a Marxist. If I am mistaken and it happens to be that he is a laissez faire capitalist of the Ayn Rand, Friedrich Hayek, or Milton Friedman persuasions, my most sincere apologies.
PS: The Rocky Mountain News article by John Ensslin which inspired this rant is at http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/education/article/0,1299,DRMN_957_3501617,00.html
UPDATE: Guess who is protesting Iraqi democratic elections. "Meanwhile across the road, a small group of protesters from the World Communist Party assembled to demonstrate against the elections." The story is in The Australian, about the voting by Iraqis living there. I'd call them pathetic twits, but judging from the above they are far too angry to qualify as twits. Copy & Paste:
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,12076779%5E1702,00.html Update II: Ignorance equals Wisdom. Our friend Mr. Churchill is interviewed: "I can give a talk to a university in North America, to students and professors, and they are fundamentally confused about things that are automatically self-evident to people when you go to a village in Latin America, where the average educational attainment is third grade. Now why can these “peasants” automatically grasp concepts that are just beyond the reach altogether of your average university audience in North America?" I don't suppose that it could even conceivably be the case that the people with a third grade education are WRONG? That the earth really does orbit the sun and not vice versa? http://www.satyamag.com/apr04/churchill.html
Nowadays it's the Marxists who love mass-murdering fascist military dictators. I guess that's because they understand that fascist military dictators are the enemies of America, and under the "The enemy of my enemy is my friend" principle, Marxists have to defend fascists' right to national self-determination. Even when the fascists use plastic shredders.
This has come to mind once again because Ward Churchill, a Marxist prof at University of Colorado is in the news: some students at Hamilton College are objecting to his giving a speech there, apparently in part because he calls the people who were murdered at the World Trade Center such charming things as "little Eichmanns."
Well, I'm in favor of free speech and as someone I won't bother looking up once said, "Better to be thought a fool than to open one's mouth and remove all doubt." Our friend Ward is intent on opening his mouth at some length, so I say let him. That doesn't mean the students have to like it or even go, though. And I do understand their objection to spending good money to bring him all the way to Clinton New York, but that's part of the expense of college, folks.
The article of Churchill's which seems to be drawing much of the ire (clik above for the link or paste from the bottom) is called: "Some People Push Back: On the Justice of Roosting Chickens." Below are a few quotes. I won't bother with much of the silliness about the jillions we slaughtered in Iraq, apparently for no better reason than Bill Clinton and Madeline Albright grooved on it, or perhaps because their corporate masters did. Anyway:
On mass-murder at the World Trade Center: "If there was a better, more effective, or in fact any other way of visiting some penalty befitting their participation upon the little Eichmanns inhabiting the sterile sanctuary of the twin towers, I'd really be interested in hearing about it."
On the Gulf War: "It was a performance worthy of the Nazis during the early months of their drive into Russia." Well, at least Churchill seems to dislike Nazis. I'll give him credit for that.
On American anti-war protestors: "nobody went further than waving signs as a means of "challenging" the patently exterminatory pursuit of Pax Americana. So pure of principle were these "dissidents," in fact, that they began literally to supplant the police in protecting corporations..." Uh oh. Corporations. And the protestors are doing their bidding. Things are looking bad.
On evil: "Evil – for those inclined to embrace the banality of such a concept – was perfectly incarnated in that malignant toad known as Madeline Albright, squatting in her studio chair like Jaba the Hutt, blandly spewing the news that she'd imposed a collective death sentence upon the unoffending youth of Iraq." This is by a college professor, mind you. I guess he understands the polemical importance of de-humanizing the opponent in order to make acceptable the assault they deserve, but where are the little wriggling feet protruding from Jaba's mouth?
And, of course, (it hardly need repeating): It's all Amerikkka's fault: "Had it not been for these evils, the counterattacks of September 11 would never have occurred." Yup, Osama the Humanitarian would still be building hospitals.
I'd love this if the writer wasn't a professor responsible for helping educate people: "In sum one can discern a certain optimism – it might even be call (sic)humanitarianism – imbedded in the thinking of those who presided over the very limited actions conducted on September 11." The 9/11 Hijackers: Humanitarians engaged in Tough Love. But only a wee bit. Yep. He means it.
I gotta believe this prof put WAY too many mushrooms on his pizza. He's really flying here: "Since they've (Amerikka's victims.TTB)shown no sign of being unreasonable or vindictive, it may even be anticipated that, after a suitable period of adjustment and reeducation (mainly to allow them to acquire the skills necessary to living within their means), those restored to control over their own destinies by the gallant sacrifices of the combat teams the WTC and Pentagon will eventually (re)admit Americans to the global circle of civilized societies. " Not too clearly written for someone who teaches at the college level, but what the heck, you get the idea. Chopping the heads off reporters and other prisoners...oh, excuse me, lackies of their corporate masters is humanitarian tough love. I forgot.
Bummer, there's a downside, tho: "Unfortunately, noble as they may have been, such humanitarian aspirations were always doomed to remain unfulfilled. For it to have been otherwise, a far higher quality of character and intellect would have to prevail among average Americans than is actually the case. Perhaps the strategists underestimated the impact a couple of generations-worth of media indoctrination can produce in terms of demolishing the capacity of human beings to form coherent thoughts." Damn. Slaughtering the little Eichmanns and sending the survivors to re-education camps won't work: we're too dumb and degenerunt.
But hey, wait a sec: If we are so durn dumb and indoctrinated, how can we possibly be responsible for the evils committed in our names? How can we do other than vote for the Demopublicans? Our corporate masters make us. Ward Churchill doesn't address that issue, but I intend to bring it up at my trial.
It goes on and on.
http://passionbomb.com/words/push_roost.htm
A truncated version appears at http://www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH/WC091201.html
which notes it is a mirrored version: http://www.marxmail.org/ward_churchill.htm
That site notes: "The Marxism list is a worldwide moderated forum for activists and scholars in the Marxist tradition". Hence I have concluded, possibly without justification, that Ward Churchill is a Marxist. If I am mistaken and it happens to be that he is a laissez faire capitalist of the Ayn Rand, Friedrich Hayek, or Milton Friedman persuasions, my most sincere apologies.
PS: The Rocky Mountain News article by John Ensslin which inspired this rant is at http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/education/article/0,1299,DRMN_957_3501617,00.html
UPDATE: Guess who is protesting Iraqi democratic elections. "Meanwhile across the road, a small group of protesters from the World Communist Party assembled to demonstrate against the elections." The story is in The Australian, about the voting by Iraqis living there. I'd call them pathetic twits, but judging from the above they are far too angry to qualify as twits. Copy & Paste:
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,12076779%5E1702,00.html Update II: Ignorance equals Wisdom. Our friend Mr. Churchill is interviewed: "I can give a talk to a university in North America, to students and professors, and they are fundamentally confused about things that are automatically self-evident to people when you go to a village in Latin America, where the average educational attainment is third grade. Now why can these “peasants” automatically grasp concepts that are just beyond the reach altogether of your average university audience in North America?" I don't suppose that it could even conceivably be the case that the people with a third grade education are WRONG? That the earth really does orbit the sun and not vice versa? http://www.satyamag.com/apr04/churchill.html
Labels: Ward Churchill
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