27-09-2009, 06:36 PM
Peter Presland Wrote:I'm about 2/3 through Guido Preparata's 'Conjuring Hitler' right now (thanks for the heads up on it a few weeks ago). I've read enough to know that you are spot on with the 'who financed and enabled Hitler' quid pro quo.
The book really is a revelation. So many things become crystal clear in light of it - and all of them absolutely damning to the UK/US 'Valiant and noble struggle against Fascists and Commies' narrative. The narrative that is so fundamental to how the populations of both States see themselves and thus the 'patriotism' necessary to maintain continued support for all the ridiculous bullshit we are expected to believe.
The depth of UK/US duplicity (and complicity) through the 1920-30's, together with the single-mindedness of its intent to manufacture a fascist regime in Germany to wage war on Russia (whose Bolshevik revolution was being similarly enabled) in order to forestall their greatest fear - that of a genuine alliance between Russia and Germany. The whole damned charade is so utterly damning to the US/UK populations self image that, in similar fashion to the realities behind 9-11, JFK etc, they must be hidden, or as fall-back positions, obfuscated and/or ridiculed, at almost any cost.
Delighted you've at last got hold of Preparata's tour de force - stunning, isn't it? And you're right, so many loose ends are suddently united and rendered coherent by it. Preparata offers a priceless paradigm, not least through his dusting off of the Veblenian concepts of the "clubs" and "stewards." This language has such explanatory power.
I was sorting out a file of clippings earlier today on the subject of the BBC. In the course of this laborious plod, I rediscovered the best mainstream piece on it I have yet come across. In "Thanks for the cultural capital, Dad," (The Guardian, Monday, 13 May 1996, p.13), Ros Coward conceived of that dreadful organisation in terms any attentive student of Veblen/Preparata would instantly recognise:
Quote:"...it has always been dominated by Reithian notions of broadcasting as a ruling-class instrument for educating and influencing the lower orders. This ethos persisted right through to the 70s with the BBC's graduate training scheme...it is still run like a village. Only a handful of courses provide any real working knowledge of the industry, so how do the powerful make their selections? By recommendation, by networks, and by trusting the 'good' families."
Earlier in the same piece, she wrote that "Everybody knows about the aristocratic dynasties of the media like the Dimblebys." In his coverage of Dachau, Dimbleby senior offered the stewards of British inter-war policy, most of them still in power despite being among the most murderous and cynical in human history, cover-story, alibi, and future pretext.
Don't forget Radio 3 on Mackinder tonight. The sound of whitewash over the airwaves is confidently anticipated!
Paul