[KS] Mein Kampf

[Frank Hoffmann]

Just to clarify two issues:

(1.)
About An Ho-sang I am essentially all with you for what you pointed 
out, and the fact that he had left Germany before Nazi rule alone does 
not seem to make such a huge difference, not in his specific case 
anyway. After all, we talk about a philosopher--a head-heavy 
stormtrooper. Just look at the very large ethnic German and Austrian 
community in the U.S. during the 1930s, before the war begun, and you 
see that it did not take any sort of physical presence in Germany to 
become a Nazi. Many among the first generation immigrants were Nazis, 
at least until the war started. As late as February 1939 they marched 
with an estimated 22,000 onlookers and hundreds of swastika flags, 
Stars and Stripes, and a huge portrait of George Washington through 
Madison Square Garden. Also, Nazism further influenced and reinforced 
ultra-conservative American ideologies. We may also have a second and 
open-minded critical look at what really happened to American "national 
identity" during the "New Deal" policies and its railroads, industry, 
and farming work programs etc. in the 1930s, and where such changes 
were informed from. "Liberal" is just an expandable catch word. The 
social components that the New Deal enforced are rather close to that 
of the Third Reich with its work programs (keyword "Autobahn"), 
reacting to the same catastrophic economic circumstances of the late 
20s and early 30s. Same in the USSR at the same time, we see the 
appearance of the Homo Sovieticus, the New Soviet man. One may not call 
all this fascist, as, obviously, it is something that was seen in 
various political systems. Yet, it was all during the same period, and 
it can very well be explained in concrete terms if we, finally, dispose 
all of our post-war and Cold War books about fascism and write new ones 
that consider and include parallel developments worldwide. What we then 
get is a picture where certain cultural phenomena AS WELL AS concrete 
economic and social-political solutions which had been attached to 
fascism, also because of the equation of modernity and modernism with 
democracy, are not anymore connected just to that one political 
movement. In short, we still see what we saw before, but we are then 
able to also see it elsewhere; the cross-connections we draw on our 
chart do not anymore place fascism in the center of it all AS IF 
fascism were the source of all that.

(2.)
As for the earlier discussed Kang Se-hyŏng: the last thing I want to do 
is to adorn myself with borrowed plumes. The credit to have 
"rediscovered" that guy has to be given to Fujii Takeshi--I am just 
following up (on him and several others) for a little while, and doing 
so I see that there is just so much more to it in terms of sources and 
expanding my own understanding, it is highly fascinating!


Thanks!
Frank


On Mon, 12 Aug 2013 10:42:31 -0400, Bruce Cumings wrote:
> I very much enjoyed Frank's post, and the fascinating people he 
> references. An Ho-sang's studies in Germany did indeed pre-date 1933, 
> and I forgot to say that in my post. But it is clear in my account of 
> him in my  book.
> 
> 
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Bruce