I was in
Tunisia in May 1968 when Paris exploded with demonstrations and the like led by
radical student leader Daniel Cohn-Bendit. I followed developments by reading
the daily Le Monde newspaper available in Tunis. The students claimed that
their spiritual leader was none other than Marxist-Freudian philosopher Herbert
Marcuse, who was a Brandeis University faculty member when I was there. But, I
was shocked to read in a subsequent interview of Cohn-Bendit that he had NEVER
read any of Marcuse's writings!
Well, these days everyone is
throwing around the term "fascism". Fascist this, anti-fascist that.
"Here's a fascist, there's an anti-fascist, everywhere a fascist or
anti-fascist." But I am convinced that the overwhelming number of folks
using the terms have never read anything by or about fascist political thought.
Don't misunderstand me - denouncing Nazis, the KKK, and white supremacists
makes perfect sense. Denouncing fascism also, in my book, makes perfect sense.
But it might be helpful if people knew more about the origins of that term and
the political principles it comprises.
