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On Tue, Aug 3, 2010 at 4:57 PM, Tom Cod <[email protected]> wrote: > > > I could never understand "banal" or "banality" as a put down, something > that > apparently has its origins in Hannah Arendt's petty snobbery. I remember > as > a kid we would be shown episodes of Walter Cronkite's "Twentieth Century" > in > school where he would sanctimoniously intone in a voice over of a clip of > Hitler petting his dog Blondi that this showed the Nazis "banality of > evil"? > Huh, so good is never commonplace or banal? people who pet dogs are banal > and "have no class". Maybe more accurately the statement would be, the > banality of certain Allied propaganda. > > Maybe Blankfort is neither banal nor grandiose, but a well meaning, > misguided guy who may simply be mistaken. > > This from a long-time activist in the struggle against Zionism -- Thanks Dennis. More should be written in this vein. I'd say that practically the entire Palestinian solidarity movement is reflexively - and mindlessly - of the Blankfort opinion. Very few, however, have made an actual career of bashing that colossus, Noam Chomsky, as Blankfort has. A bizarre way of hoisting oneself onto the shoulders of a giant. Incidentally, Palestinian intellectuals see Chomsky as probably their staunchest and most effective long-time advocate. Which he has been for the past 45 to 50 years. ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: [email protected] Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
