Iraq v. 1984 Foreword

[jbor]

>> Interesting too that in Robert's post he feels it necessary to state
>> that Iraqis are actually human beings!

on 3/6/03 3:30 AM, s~Z wrote:

> Because there has been an imbalance of attention on this list regarding the
> situation in Iraq. Where were all of the peaceniks on this list before the
> US got involved? Why no spams about the atrocities against the Iraqi people
> at the hands of Sadaam? Why no application of Pynchon's writings to Sadaam
> and others all over the globe? When someone works as hard as TRP to capture
> the complexity of life, it is annoying to see it all trivialized in ways
> that even Pynchon makes fun of.
> 

The interesting sentence in the 1984 Foreword in this context is this one:

    [Orwell] had gone to Spain in 1937 to fight against Franco and
    his Nazi-supported fascists, and had quickly learned the difference
    between real and phony antifascism. (ix)

There are two things of significance here I think. One is that Pynchon
doesn't condemn Orwell for volunteering to fight with the International
Brigades against "fascism" in Spain, which consigns the 'Pynchon as
absolutist pacifist' falderal to the dustbin where it belongs. The second is
the distinction between "real and phony antifascism". Applying what Pynchon
writes in the Foreword to our situation "circa 2003", it seems to me that if
going to "fighting on the side of the oppressed" in Iraq against a fascist
tyrant like Saddam is an example of "real antifascism", then it begs the
question of who are the "phony antifascists". I wonder who can be described
as "in reality concerned only with establishing and perpetuating their own
power"? I think that question applies as much to the countries which
supported the US-led invasion as to those that didn't, to the anti-war
lobbyists as to pro-war ones.

best