169 lines
8.7 KiB
Plaintext
169 lines
8.7 KiB
Plaintext
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Conspiracy Nation -- Vol. 12 Num. 39
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("Quid coniuratio est?")
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EZRA POUND AND ITALIAN FASCISM
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==============================
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(*Ezra Pound and Italian Fascism* by Dr. Tim Redman. Cambridge:
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Cambridge University Press, 1991. ISBN: 0-521-37305-0)
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Review by Conspiracy Nation
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I feel certain that at least one reader of Conspiracy Nation will
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gravely inform me that, "Ezra Pound was a fascist."
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Unfortunately, this is true: Ezra Pound was a fascist. He was
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also, unfortunately, anti-Semitic. He also (apparently) was not
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a very good speller, but in that we begin to enter into the
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deeper subtleties of Ezra Pound: Ezra Pound's chief innovation
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in poetry (besides bad speller, fascist, and anti-Semite, Pound
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was also a poet) seems to be his innovation of "bad spelling as
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poetic device." Here you have an extraordinarily intelligent and
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well-read poet who presents himself as a 19th-century country
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bumpkin. Ah, but that is the great genius of Pound (it seems):
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he plays with you, conning you into believing he's not too bright
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when, in reality, he belongs to the upper crust of the
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intelligentsia.
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Of interest to readers of Conspiracy Nation will be that Ezra
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Pound was also a so-called "conspiracy theorist." (Ezra Pound:
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bad speller, fascist, anti-Semite, and conspiracy theorist.)
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That aspect of Mr. Pound is what makes Professor Redman's
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(University of Texas, Dallas) book of special interest to this
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editor. Professor Redman distances himself from the
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generally-perceived negativities of Pound, warning his readers,
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for example, that conspiracy theories "by their very nature
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cannot be verified in any ordinary sense nor can they be
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'falsified'; that is, there is no evidence or testing procedure
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available to show that they are not true." Perhaps Dr. Redman
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hasn't heard of such conspiracies as The Gulf of Tonkin Incident,
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The Bay of Pigs, The Assassination of John F. Kennedy, The
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Overthrow of Salvador Allende, Watergate, The Assassination of
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Orlando Letelier, Iran-Contra, etc. Or it may be that Dr. Redman
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is not precise enough about exactly what he means by "conspiracy
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theories." In the context of his book, it can be inferred that
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Dr. Redman's general statement about "conspiracy theories" should
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be taken to mean something like "the really crazy conspiracy
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theories." Unfortunately, the learned professor just issues his
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bland, ivory-tower pronouncement about conspiracy theories and
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then moves on to other things.
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Dr. Redman tries to resurrect Ezra Pound from his unfortunate
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associations with fascism and anti-Semitism, to dust off the crud
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to reveal the shining beauty of bad spelling. And who knows?
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Maybe Pound was actually a good poet. Unfortunately, the state
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of "good" poetry in the 20th century has evolved (or devolved)
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into something which only 12 living persons can "properly"
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evaluate. (And even they argue amongst themselves.)
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All these critiques notwithstanding, Professor Redman has written
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a worthwhile book, in that he succeeds in separating Ezra Pound,
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the idealistic poet, from Ezra Pound, the "bad guy." (Redman
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quotes George Orwell in one of his footnotes: "...the word
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'Fascism' has now no meaning except in so far as it signifies
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'something not desirable.'") Redman shows how Pound, beginning in
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circa-World War I Great Britain, a nobly concerned idealist
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studying how to end the recurring brutalities of war, later moved
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to Italy and got sucked into Benito Mussolini's Italian Fascism,
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largely as a result of living in that mileau. Professor Redman
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also stresses how Pound's anti-Semitism existed in a world not
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yet familiar with the horrible Nazi death camps of World War II.
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Pound never advocated mass extermination and was actually
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pro-Zionist. In pre-Holocaust times, anti-Semitism had not yet
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acquired its awful association with Adolph Hitler's "final
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solution."
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But Ezra Pound's legacy, in the popular sense, is not his poetry
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but his pioneering work in the advocacy of a conspiratorial view
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of how the world really operates. Professor Redman shows how
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Pound often was far "ahead of his time" in his deep understanding
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of economics. To this editor, also obvious is that Ezra Pound,
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writing in the 1920s and 1930s, anticipates the explosion in
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popularity of conspiracy literature occuring in our decade, the
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1990s. In many ways, both good and bad, Ezra Pound prefigures
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the vast muddle of 1990s "conspiratology." Pound's main focus is
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on the economic system and on how a change in it would lead to
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peace, freedom, and a more equal distribution of an already
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existing abundance. He also rails against the press, which he
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sees as puppets of the money power, and rants against the role
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played by universities. Dr. Redman summarizes Pound's view on
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the malevolent influence exercised by the money monopoly:
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International usurers, in Pound's view, create wars for
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their own profit, to get nations into debt, and are
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continually trying to stamp out any threat to their
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economic monopoly and any move toward economic justice.
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They control the newspapers and the press, which in turn
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maintain the ignorance of the people about economic
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subjects. "The Count of Vergennes had cause to say to John
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Adams: 'newspapers rule the world.'"
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The conspiracy against economic knowledge is furthered in
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the universities. All the textbooks written for them
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during the nineteenth century, "the century of usury...
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were written to maintain the domination of usury" according
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to Pound.
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This would explain, for example, why economics is perceived as
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"boring." Mainstream economics is =purposefully= made boring by
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the intellectual *apparatchiks* of the money power so as to help
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conceal what is really going on.
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Also noteworthy is Pound's view that the United States has been
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in decline since 1863 and that the assassination of Abraham
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Lincoln may have been ordered by the money monopoly. This view
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is supported in past issues of Conspiracy Nation (CN), for
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example CN 11.34, "Lincoln's 'Greenbacks' (And Why That Killed
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Him)," where it states, in part, that
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Abraham Lincoln was "the man who first proved that
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government could issue its own paper money, legally,
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honorably, and rightfully, and make it full legal tender
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for all debts, both public and private..." Was Lincoln "a
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dangerous man from the [bankers] point of view? Could they
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have continued their knavery, trickery, bribery, and
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destructive work... if Lincoln had lived?" (Dr. R.E.
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Search)
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*Ezra Pound and Italian Fascism*, like Rome, has many roads
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leading away from it. Pound's ideas are tantalizing and readers
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of Dr. Redman's book will find themselves wishing to pursue its
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many threads. Discussion centers strongly on a few of Pound's
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mentors, such as A.R. Orage, editor of the socialist newspaper
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"New Age"; Major C.H. Douglas, author of such books as *Economic
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Democracy* and *Credit Power and Democracy*; and Silvio Gesell,
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author of the classic tome, *The Natural Economic Order*. It is
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tempting to go further at this point and outline what these
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Poundian mentors had to say -- what they say is earth-shattering.
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Instead, a deeper reading of their ideas is seen as the better
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prelude to such an outline. Conspiracy Nation is grateful to
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Professor Redman for dusting off Ezra Pound, a wayward prophet
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but a prophet nonetheless.
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+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
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For related stories, visit:
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http://www.shout.net/~bigred/cn.html
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Views expressed do not necessarily reflect those
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of Conspiracy Nation, nor of its Editor in Chief.
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I encourage distribution of "Conspiracy Nation."
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New mailing list: leave message in the old hollow tree stump.
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Want to know more about Whitewater, Oklahoma City bombing, etc?
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(1) telnet prairienet.org (2) logon as "visitor" (3) go citcom
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Aperi os tuum muto, et causis omnium filiorum qui pertranseunt.
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Aperi os tuum, decerne quod justum est, et judica inopem et
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pauperem. -- Liber Proverbiorum XXXI: 8-9
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