Re: [Marxism] Help on Hitchens (or Ignatieff) on railroad and indian genocide

["Gilles d'Aymery" <aymery@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Thanks to Lou and David for the help. It's the YellowTimes.org article which
reads:

Quote
In a 1992 "Minority Report," Hitchens pillories Indians for "undertaking to
protest the celebration of racism, conquest and plunder that impended on
Columbus Day." Hitchens derides such claims, arguing that the anti-Columbus
movement is "sinister?because it is an ignorant celebration of stasis and
backwardness, with an unpleasant tinge of self-hatred."
He later reinforces the most despicable stereotypes about Native American
cultures: "[T]hose who view the history of North America as a narrative of
genocide and slavery are, it seems to me, hopelessly stuck on this reactionary
position. They can think of the Western expansion of the United States only in
terms of plague blankets, bootleg booze and dead buffalo, never in terms of
the medicine chest, the wheel and the railway."
Unquote

This episode came to mind after reading Lou's piece on Gordon and the
Mahdi in which he quotes Eduard Bernstein's 1898 article making the colonial
case re Morocco: "However much violence, fraud, and other unworthy
actions accompanied the spread of European rule in earlier centuries, as they
often still do today, the other side of the picture is that, under direct 
European
rule, savages are without exception better off than they were before."

Then put the above together with the following:

Quote
My battalion carries out dozens of missions all over the city -- missions that
are improving peoples' lives. We have restored schools and universities,
hospitals, power plants and water systems. We have engineered new
infrastructure projects and much more. We have also brought security and
order to many of Baghdad's worst areas -- areas once afflicted with chaos
and brutality. Our efforts to train vast numbers of Iraqis to police and secure
the city's basic law and order are bearing fruit.

Our mission is vital. We are transforming a once very sick society into a
hopeful place. Dozens of newspapers and the concepts of freedom of
religious worship and expression are flowering here. So, too, are educational
improvements.

Joe Roche, US Army, Iraq, "Keep the faith: A leeter from Iraq"
http://www.nationalcenter.org/2004_04_01_BlogArchive.html#10813482411
8333461
Unquote

Same old, same old....

Thanks again.
Gilles d'Aymery

On 8 Apr 2004, at 16:57, you wrote:

>
>
>  It was Hitchens:
>
> (1)
> http://www.yellowtimes.org/article.php?sid=921&mode=thread&orde
> r=0
>
> (2)
> http://www.adelaideinstitute.org/Dissenters/finkelstein_hitchens.htm
>
> (do a word check for "native").


> > Can any one help me here?
> >
> > Some time ago, either Hitchens or Ignatieff wrote something to the
> > effect that -- and I paraphrase -- yes there had been a US genocide
> > of the Indians but one should also keep in mind that we had brought
> > the railroad to the West. I think to remember that he (Hitchens) was
> > responding to either Zinn, Said or Chomsky.
> >
> > Sorry for my vagueness. Does this ring a bell?


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