RE: Forwarded from John Edmundson (on Holocaust analogies)

[James Farmelant <farmelantj@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I wonder what John thinks of Hannah Arendt's thesis that
fascism imposed upon white European populations the
sorts of oppression that previously had been directed only
at Third World populations under imperialism?

Jim F.

------Original Message------
From: Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>
To: marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: September 5, 2000 1:16:04 PM GMT
Subject: Forwarded from John Edmundson (on Holocaust analogies)


(posted from unsubbed address)

This debate is particularly topical for people in New Zealand
because a Maori Labour Party MP, Tariana Turia just a week or so
ago likened the colonial experience of Maori to the Holocaust. This
was in conjunction with a statement that Maori suffer from "post
colonial traumatic stress disorder." She has been condemned by
everyone outside the Maori Nationalist community. It raises
important issues about "Holocaust relativism."

What happened in the colonial period in NZ was pretty standard,
massive disposession of the land, plenty of abuses by racist
individuals, often with state support, economic devastation for
Maori as well as decimation through disease. What didn't happen
was any attempt to eliminate the Maori people, such as happened
in parts of the US or Australia. So I think that the condemnation of
the comment is appropriate. Colonisation was not the same as the
Holocaust.

The difference is in the intent. Holocaust has the connotation
implicit in it of intent to commit genocide. The Nazis clearly had
that intent. To liken the complete inability of capitalism to meet the
needs of society to the express policy of racial slaughter not only
diminishes the significance of Nazism, it also weakens our critique
of capitalism, in the same way that branding any particularly
unpleasant capitalist personality a fascist does. It brings a purely
emotive critique, based on moral indignation, rather than the kind of
precision of thought Marxists expect of debate. Of course, moral
outrage over the injustices and incompetencies of capitalism is
entirely appropriate. But to conflate specific manifestations of
capitalism with capitalism in general is too fuzzy to be good
analysis.

John Edmundson


Louis Proyect

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