[MD] Babylonian intellectuals

[David Thomas]

On 7/19/10 12:25 PM, "John Carl" <ridgecoyote at gmail.com> wrote:

> I'd considered this before, reading an answer of Royce to James' critics,
> but that Goldberg book sounds fascinatingly like a confirmation of this
> idea.

[Dave]
Not being familiar with Royce I can't say.

Goldberg basically traces the socialist/fascist impulse back to the French
Revolution and follows its twists and turns up to the present (2007 when it
was published)"it takes a village" form.  He claims that James and Mussolini
early on were mutual admirers and that Hitler had positive things to say
about both James and Dewey's work. In the period after WWI all the future
"bad boys" were to one degree or another participants in the development and
spread of international socialism. H & M in their rise to power, partly
because of their fear of Russia, and partly for pragmatic reasons split off
of the "international" strain developing a modified nationalistic socialism
that later became labeled fascism. He claims all of them used James "Will to
Believe" and "Moral Equivalent of War" married with Nietze's "Will to Power"
concepts to some degree or another as philosophic underpinning for their
actions.

So the real danger is not "cafeteria Christians" but "cafeteria
Philosophers." But it seems to one degree or another we all are.

Dave