VLVL II: "What is Fascism?" (fwd)

[lorentzen-nicklaus]

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Paul Mackin schrieb:

> On Tue, 2004-02-17 at 05:01, lorentzen-nicklaus wrote:
> > * Hey there, thought some of you may be interested ... What's irritating
> > about this (just got the mail: haven't had time to check the book) is the
> > immediate identification of islamic fundamentalism with fascism (chapter 10)
> > and, especially, the thesis that there is a "new European consent" towards
> > the islamist rebellion against the western world (chapter 11). This is obviously
> > not the case. Just read any article about the Kopftuch(head-scarf) question.
> > Should muslim girls be allowed to wear a head-scarf in the classroom? And if they
> > do although it's forbidden, do we have the right to call them (or their parents)
> > "fascists"? What do black muslims in the USA say about this?
> 
 
 
> Yes I agree this promotion by Akronos Publishing is irritating but to me
> the irritation comes mostly from the fact that, judging from the
> abstract, the book is complete nonsense. 


° Now, "complete nonsense" is a harsh formulation in the area of soft sciences.
I do agree, however, that the thing could make more sense. Two reasons why I chose 
to pass this along. First, I think the (Post-)Left really has a problem with naming
problems in a mobilizing way. And here it simply is the case that the excessive use
of the word "fascism" around 1970, especially by the students movement, damaged its
political value seriously. In reaction to that, the historistical context of fascism
was worked out, and today - here the authors are imo correct - it is, at least in 
academia, not possible to call any comtemporary phenomenon "fascist" without being 
challenged that "there can be no 'authentic fascism before democracy' or unless 
it arises within a democracy, from a democracy; or that fascism is nationalistic and
not a transnational movement; or that it is synonymous with totalitarianism, or with 
the dictatorship of a party-police machine; or that it is a secular movement and not 
a religious one, etc, etc". On the other hand, and with this I come to the second 
issue, there is for real what Foucault calls the "microphysics of power", a term which
could be translated into the notion of "every-day-fascism" (Alltagsfaschismus). Some
of the most creative (post)left research that followed the students movement was done 
on that. Take Deleuze & Guattari, or Klaus Theweleit, who try to elaborate a 'psycho-historical' map of fascization. In their abstract the authors of the book in question
write: "Indeed, present-day forms of social organization have incorporated so many 
of the control and conditioning methods, rules, techniques and dispositives of fascism,
and insinuated them so deeply into everyday life, that no one recognizes fascism 
any longer, nor its distinguishing traits, for what they are." This is an important 
theme in Thomas Pynchon's "Vineland", no?
 

> It may be comforting to
> remember that few will ever read it or take whatever it ends up saying
> seriously. Akronos specializes in aetherometry. 


° The appearance in an obscure publishing house does not automatically
turn books into toilet paper. Especially in the USA where - correct me
if I'm wrong - the number of (translated) outlandish publications is 
dramatically decreasing for quite some time now ...
 
 
> How the West should deal with Muslim fundamentalism and the head-scarf
> (or other religious symbols) in public classrooms is a conundrum.  


° This way or the other, it must be fair. It's completely unacceptable when
people say (and some really do) that Muslim symbols must stay outside yet 
Christian or Jewish ones can come in. Gleiches Recht für alle! (The same
law for everybody) Islam as such is not necessarily less or more violent
than other religions. Ever heard of that rather peaceful (syncretist) Muslim
faith they celebrate in Indonesia? Or of the Persian Sufi sects who do dope
and belly dance for centuries? The way Islam will develop in the coming 
decades also depends on our Western (re)actions. Here respect is a must. 
A (quasi-feminist) Muslim reformation would probably be good, and something
like this is, undeclared, happening in Teheran these days. For media-historical 
(Internet, satellite TV) and demographical (many young people) reasons, in the
first place. There are similar conditions in other islamic countries.
It's a great historical chance -- 
 

Greetings, Kai +