Wednesday, August 03, 2005
Stalinism v Nazism posted by Richard Seymour
In lieu of a proper post*, and in deference to an extraordinary hangover that knows no respect for my suffering body, here's a quick musing for you. Last night at a pub, I was finally apprised of the fundamental ethical difference between Stalinism and Nazism: there is no Stalinist porn , whereas ...Never mind all that stuff from Primo Levi about how the former represents the tragic outcome of a great project gone wrong, whereas the latter represents the catastrophic fulfilment of a project that went altogether too right. The swastika, as used by the Nazis, was a sexual symbol, a symbol of domination, whereas the hammer and sickle was high camp under Stalinism, a kitschy mockery of socialism's liberatory impulse, its workerism and so on. Try and imagine it: a pair of Stakhanovite workers gently stirring to action with the words "Long live the glorious Five Year Plan!" It's just not happening.
*There's no such thing, of course, as a "proper post". Blogging is supposed to be errant, gamesome, frivolous etc. But this is just taking the piss.