1984 Foreword "fascistic disposition"

[jbor]

on 9/5/03 8:31 PM, Mike Weaver wrote:

> I haven't expressed any preference, merely suggested that for the
> majority of people within the capitalist democratic sphere of control and
> influence life is not as rosy as you believe.

My point all along has been that life for the vast majority of people living
in Western democracies is better than it is for the vast majority of people
living under totalitarian dictatorships. You don't seem willing to accept
that this is true, but you don't seem able to argue that it is false.

> That you have contrasted the healthy state of western democracies with
> totalitarian regimes while conveniently ignoring the suffering in our
> (economic) dependencies without which that health would wither.

No, that's not correct. I've compared the levels of intellectual freedom and
political equality. I'm all for economic globalisation and the removal of
those protectionist tariffs and tacit trade agreements which debilitate
Third World economies, but that's a separate topic altogether.

> BTW I haven't made any reference to Bush or Hitler - you must be confusing
> me with someone else...

You wrote that "the contrast between the virtuous Western democracies and
the vile dictatorships fades into insignificance". That assertion is of a
kind with comparisons between Bush and Hitler, one of the "types of
comparisons" I referred to as spurious.

best