[PEN-L:29384] Stalinophobia

["Devine, James" <jdevine@xxxxxxx>]

Title: Stalinophobia

Michael Perelman writes:>Someone once proposed -- I think they pronounce it a law -- that once the word Hitler appears in the debate all dialogue is finished.  If that idea is a law, a Stalin corollary is warranted.<

I don't think so.

One reason why Hitler & the Nazis show up is that they are an important exception to a lot of rules, such as the advantages of civilization and the inevitability of progress. In 1929, Germany had both civilization and progress, but ... Also, they represent a perfect counter-example to the "the worse the better" theory. I agree that Hitler analogies are to be avoided (I don't think it makes sense, for example, to compare George Dubya to Hitler), but sometimes they do make sense.

As for Stalin, I think that his tendency -- and there are people who apologize for it, even on pen-l -- represents a failure not of capitalism (as with Hitler) but of the socialist movement. I don't think either of the links in the chain Marx --> Lenin --> Stalin follow like night follows day (or vice-versa). But Stalin and his "ism" represents a trap that socialists have fallen into, the idea that socialism can be imposed from above with bayonets. (This includes not just Maoists but also Fabians, such as the Webbs.)

Jim Devine