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I had a (Mencius) Moldbug moment today when reading a sample of the screeds of fawning admiration expressed in obituaries to the recently dead historian Eric Hobsbawm.
If you want to see what the ruling intellectual elite really think, then you should look at some of this stuff, and survey the list of honours and establishment accolades to this chap.
The lack of any concept of evil in a post-Christian society has seldom been so obviously on display.
EH was the epitome of an evil intellectual: evil in motivation and in influence, and on an epic scale - yet of course the mass media stopped everything to heap his bier with praise.
All this is a no brainer - but it is worth seeing how advanced and effective has become the secular Leftist technique of 'framing'; such that truly massive accomplishments of evil are re-packaged and re-presented as saint-like virtue.
Black is white, up is down, 2 + 2 = 5...
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9 comments:
Hello Bruce. New fan of your blog and, I should add, your ideas. I was not familiar with Eric Hobsbaum and I was wondering what you specifically thought was so despicable about him. From what I've briefly read, I was thinking it must be either his support for communism, criticism of tradition, or, least likely I think, support for using the nuclear bomb on Japan (I don't know where you would fall on this last point yourself). Or maybe something else entirely? Thanks for your time!
Peter
I always thought that it was a pity that we didn't all celebrate the fall of the wall by cheerfully stringing up Hobsbawm and others of his kidney. After all, they approved of murdering lots of the unconvicted for the common good.
anon,
All of those things are consistent and are consistent with the rest of the the man's work.
Hobsbawm was a perfect example of a repulsive leftist intellectual. His most infamous statement was in a 1995 interview where he was attempting to dodge a question about the tens of millions murdered by communists. The interviewer continued to press about it, finally leading to a direct answer about whether the crimes were justified:
"Yes, I think so."
That this man could still be held in high regard leads me to believe that many leftists would, if the opportunity presented itself, give "us" the Kulak treatment with relish.
Anonymous Long-time Lurker
What was it that made him such an evil intellectual?
@JB - A combination of original sin, demonic influence, and his own free will, probably.
@bgc - Well said! But not the type of answer I was looking for.
@JB - I know, but since I said it was a no-brainer, I did not want to be the one to cast the first stone... ;=)
"To give subtilty to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion." Proverbs 1:4
Pity a young and simple man...
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