(urth) The Devil in a Forest

[David Stockhoff]

It's not a question of not seeing it---it's a question of seeing something else that is much more interesting. Wat's crimes are only one form of the corrupting nature of groups and thus the corruptable nature of humans. They are primarily criminal and only superficially socialistic, and thus can't really be held up as representative of socialism. They are representative of something, but, rather, they are an example of how men can be corrupted by the offering of group anonymity and free lunches. 

Is war any different? Wolfe asks this question all the time. War is also an impersonal transaction between groups in which no individual need feel personally responsible.



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Message: 6
Date: Tue, 19 May 2009 09:52:27 -0500
From: "James Wynn" <crushtv at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: (urth) The Devil in a Forest
To: "The Urth Mailing List" <urth at lists.urth.net>
Message-ID: <6989DB2D2FE34E278A9BB3E6E28D6641 at eMachinePC>
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1";
	reply-type=response


> > I think there is more to it than just how sneaky his propaganda is. Sure, 
> > Wolfe is propagandizing, as always---but he doesn't just
> >propagandize for a narrow segment of the political spectrum,
> >and he rarely makes things as black and white and baldly
> >allegorical as you seem to suggest.
>   

Well, I'm really only referring to this one work as libertarian/liberal 
propaganda. When I said "Wat/Robin Hood is an interesting exemplar of the 
corrupting nature of socialism", I wasn't trying to stake a flag in the name 
of John Stuart Mill. I thought it was mildly obvious. If you don't see it 
even when pointed out, then that's kudos to Wolfe. Silk's explanation of why 
he doesn't collect everyone's weapons is also propaganda, but not so 
artfully done. Way too obvious.

On the other hand, James Jordan is correct when he says that Wolfe is a 
master propagandizer of Christian principles. Still, one could reasonably 
say the same of him regarding Gnosticism. Is the Sun Cycle to Gnosticism 
what The Chronicles of Narnia are orthodox Christianity?

J. 



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