The Gnomic Tracker http://tmh.floonet.net/weblog All is not necessarily lost Sun, 13 Feb 2011 06:40:48 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Debunking the Devil Theory of War http://tmh.floonet.net/weblog/blog/2010/06/debunking-the-devil-theory-of-war/ http://tmh.floonet.net/weblog/blog/2010/06/debunking-the-devil-theory-of-war/#comments Tue, 15 Jun 2010 04:17:50 +0000 thegnomes http://tmh.floonet.net/weblog/?p=123 Charles Beard, in his “The Devil Theory of War“, draws on documents from the Nye committee to document his case against the the theory. The theory proposes that agents from another dimension with wicked intentions insinuate themselves into the normal flow of peaceful and idyllic activities, and shifts them to war unwillingly. The theory is debunked handily in this little book, showing how through ordinary seemingly peaceful commerce stakeholders are created with vested interests in promulgating war.

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Barnes’ Original World War Revisionist Bibliography http://tmh.floonet.net/weblog/blog/2009/09/barnes-original-world-war-revisionist-bibliography/ http://tmh.floonet.net/weblog/blog/2009/09/barnes-original-world-war-revisionist-bibliography/#comments Mon, 14 Sep 2009 20:48:39 +0000 thegnomes http://tmh.floonet.net/weblog/?p=121 Here presented is a the original World War revisionist bibliography compiled by Harry Elmer Barnes back in 1957. It was this work that formed the basis of the bibliography compiled by Keith Stimely.

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An Address to Men of Science http://tmh.floonet.net/weblog/blog/2009/08/an-address-to-men-of-science/ http://tmh.floonet.net/weblog/blog/2009/08/an-address-to-men-of-science/#comments Tue, 04 Aug 2009 19:32:45 +0000 thegnomes http://tmh.floonet.net/weblog/?p=63 200px-Richard_Carlile_SketchRichard Carlile, reformer and avowed atheist, writing from a cell where he was serving time for committing free speech, calls upon men of science to come forth and wrest “the truth from the foul grasp and persecution of superstition; and obtain for the island of Great Britain the noble appellation of the focus of truth; whence mankind shall be illuminated, and the black and pestiferous clouds of persecution and superstition be banished from the face of the earth; as the only sure prelude to universal peace and harmony among the human race.” This eloquent entreaty was printed and published by Carlile in 1821, a couple years after the Peterloo massacre which he’d witnessed first hand. It was an important advancement in the public discussion of disbelief — the very thing that got him into so much trouble with the church-state establishment.

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Another Pamphlet Authored by Harry Elmer Barnes http://tmh.floonet.net/weblog/blog/2009/03/another-pamphlet-authored-by-harry-elmer-barnes/ http://tmh.floonet.net/weblog/blog/2009/03/another-pamphlet-authored-by-harry-elmer-barnes/#comments Tue, 10 Mar 2009 03:58:54 +0000 thegnomes http://tmh.floonet.net/weblog/?p=50 The title is “The Chickens of the Interventionist Liberals Have Come Home to Roost: The bitter fruits of globaloney,” originally published in 1953. This is described in James J. Martin’s A Beginner’s Manual for Apprentice Book Burners as a production certain to “induce a few cases of apoplexy.”

Indeed, more than a few, as it holds forth in behalf of a return to historical revisionism after a too long hiatus in the earlier part of the century it was written. Here are some random quotes from the 44 page document:

Indeed, while they have indulged in almost unlimited rhetorical dolorosity and indignation over the increased regimentation of thought and expression, the totalitarian liberals, as a whole, have done virtually nothing which could have any real effect in eliminating the conditions under which they now seem to writhe. To do anything really effective along such lines would be almost impossible for these totalitarian liberals, since the first, and almost the only important, step would have to be a confession that their program of intervention, war and globaloney since 1937 has been a gigantic fraud and a vastly expensive hoax which Soviet Russia has been only too happy to exploit.

The “flip-flop boys” were not, of course, limited to the liberals. There were a number of Socialists who deserted the proletarian cause of peace to which they were committed by tradition and ideology and joined the war-mongers. But, although their shift was more ludicrous, they were relatively unimportant in any practical sense, as compared with the liberals. The latter controlled the government of the United States, while the Socialists remained in a hopeless minority. Notable instances of Socialists who shifted their position were Upton Sinclair, Sidney Hook, Louis Hacker, Alfred Baker Lewis, and the majority of those Socialists who now operate the New Leader and bellow for action against Russia perhaps even more loudly than members of the Union League Club. They left Norman Thomas in the lurch in his valiant effort to put the Socialist party on record against interventionism.

As Captain Russell Grenfell has justly and aptly observed, the main lesson taught by the Korean War is that the worst possible disaster which can befall any nation today is to be defended against aggression by the United Nations. It is fair to suggest that, not since the Children’s Crusade of 1212, has there been a more glaring case of well-intentioned futility and ill-timed crusading than the strenuous effort to promote immediate world government, world citizenship, and the like, which is now sponsored by Stringfellow Barr, Norman Cousins, Owen J. Roberts, and others who share their program and crusading zeal.

All this stands out in remarkable contrast to the attitude of the liberals after the first World War. During that war, most of the liberals, except for a few like Randolph Bourne and Oswald Garrison Villard, were swept into the crusade for “the war to end all war,” as a result of the eloquence of Woodrow Wilson. After the war, however, the liberals, almost to a man, recognized their tragic mistake and became the leaders of Revisionism down to the mid-1930′s. As late as 1935, Walter Millis published his Road to War, the most scathing volume ever written criticizing American entry into the first World War. The liberals repudiated the thesis of unique German responsibility for the first World War and the nefarious treaty of Versailles, which was based upon this illusion. They logically denounced the failure to revise the postwar treaties, the absurd and disastrous attempt to collect astronomical reparations from Germany, and all the other outstanding international follies of the 1920′s.

The net result of the Revisionism carried on by the liberals after 1920 was highly beneficial: it temporarily discredited interventionism and foreign meddling; it encouraged disarmament; it added strength to the movement for neutrality; it notably promoted world peace down to the mid-1930′s; and it helped to restore public toleration.

The stock argument of the interventionist liberals in regard to their refusal to accept and promote Revisionism since 1941 is that there is no factual basis for it now, as there was after 1918. The outpourings of White House interventionist propaganda after 1937 and of the Office of War Information after 1941 are represented as being gospel truth on the diplomatic history of the United States and the world from 1937 to 1945. The reverse of this attitude is the real truth. Whatever the errors and exaggerations in interventionist propaganda from 1914 to 1918, they were trivial when compared with the mendacity and mythology that accompanied interventionism and war following 1937.

The totalitarian liberals of our time mourn the disappearance of the welfare state, whether of the New Deal or the Fair Deal, and lament the fact that the money which once went into public works is now being spent for armament and war. This lament was eloquently and forcefully expressed by Mrs. Agnes E. Meyer in an address before a Conference of the American Public Welfare Association in Washington on September 24, 1953. She held that: “The swing of reaction is so great that all liberal ideals are actually on the defensive today.” The most cogent comment on this is that it was the interventionist liberals who brought on the war system. They often reply that this was necessary in order to prevent the defeat of the Democrats and the New Deal in 1940.

This is, however, an evasive and shallow justification, in the light of liberal ideology and dialectic. Following the latter closely, the course of events should have been, in the event of a Republican victory in 1940: (1) reactionary and deflationary economic policies producing a worse depression than that which followed 1929; (2) the discrediting of the Republicans, the restoration of the Democrats with a greater majority than ever before, and the reinstitution of the welfare state on a scale surpassing anything envisaged by Mr. Roosevelt, while saving the hundreds of billions of dollars spent on the war. Hence, if the totalitarian-liberal dialectic were sound, the liberals would today be basking in a welfare-state paradise or Utopia.

It is not argued here that events would actually have followed this pattern of development or that it would have been a blessing if they had. We are merely pointing out that, if the liberals had possessed both faith in their doctrines and statesmanlike patience, they would have preferred peace to war as the means of realizing their ideals.

The most aggressive leaders of the movement for world-meddling proclaim the necessity and obligation of American world leadership. Events from 1945 to the present have amply proved that this cannot be established and maintained by force and war. It might be achieved by demonstrating conspicuous success in peaceful activities at home-competent government, economic prosperity, and liberty for all. Even a little country like Sweden, as a result of its remarkable domestic achievements, came nearer to world leadership in the 1930′s than the United States has attained through vast expense and bloodshed since 1941. The United States will never achieve world leadership in the guise of “the Savior with the Sword.” After some eight years of lavish financing of globaloney and world-meddling, far from being enthusiastically accepted as a “world leader,” the United States is more universally hated and feared than at any other period of our national existence.

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Historical Revisionism in Germany after Two World Wars http://tmh.floonet.net/weblog/blog/2009/03/historical-revisionism-in-germany-after-two-world-wars/ http://tmh.floonet.net/weblog/blog/2009/03/historical-revisionism-in-germany-after-two-world-wars/#comments Tue, 03 Mar 2009 16:10:59 +0000 thegnomes http://tmh.floonet.net/weblog/?p=46 Harry Elmer Barnes holds forth on this topic in his essay “Revisionism and brainwashing : a survey of the war-guilt question in Germany after two world wars,” privately published in 1962, now available as pdf. Other such items are listed in the Keith Stimely revisionist bibliography.

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Peter Kropotkin’s Mutual Aid http://tmh.floonet.net/weblog/blog/2009/01/peter-kropotkins-mutual-aid/ http://tmh.floonet.net/weblog/blog/2009/01/peter-kropotkins-mutual-aid/#comments Wed, 07 Jan 2009 05:42:41 +0000 thegnomes http://tmh.floonet.net/weblog/?p=40 So, yet another item that has been sitting in the queue has been added to the mix at The Memory Hole. In this case, the brilliant exposition of Peter Kropotkin in his seminal work, Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution. This is the edition edited by Paul Avrich and features a thoughtful introduction by him.

The book is broken into individual chapters and other components, each available in the Adobe portable document format. An online table of contents is provided to make it easy for readers to find their way around the book. Enjoy!

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Benjamin R. Tucker Anthology http://tmh.floonet.net/weblog/blog/2009/01/30/ http://tmh.floonet.net/weblog/blog/2009/01/30/#comments Tue, 06 Jan 2009 07:33:01 +0000 thegnomes http://tmh.floonet.net/weblog/?p=30 Finally got around to uploading the Benjamin R. Tucker centenary anthology originally published in paperback in 1986 by Michael E. Coughlin and Mark Sullivan. The occasion for this volume was not clear apart from a seminal Tucker essay, State Socialism and Anarchism: How Far They Agree, and Wherein They Differ, that was supposed to have been published about 100 years prior.

Be that as it may, the collected essays are herewith presented to the reader with access to Adobe Reader. Each essay is presented as a separate document to help minimize bandwidth requirements.

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The Great Explosion is Awah http://tmh.floonet.net/weblog/blog/2008/09/the-great-explosion-is-awah/ http://tmh.floonet.net/weblog/blog/2008/09/the-great-explosion-is-awah/#comments Fri, 26 Sep 2008 17:46:44 +0000 thegnomes http://tmh.floonet.net/weblog/?p=24 Received an advisory from a literary agent representing Eric Frank Russell’s estate that the science fiction author’s novel, The Great Explosion, posted on TMH had to be removed. Here’s the note:

I understand that you host the [The Great Explosion] website. Pollinger Ltd are the literary representatives for the Estate of Eric Frank Russell.

The Great Explosion by Eric Frank Russell is currently copyright-protected, therefore I must inform you that you are required to remove it immediately from the site.

Please confirm by email that the work has been removed.

Thank you in advance for your co-operation.

So, the novel was removed from TMH and then there was none.

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Suvorov: Whence Aggression, June 1941? http://tmh.floonet.net/weblog/blog/2008/09/suvorov-whence-aggression-june-1941/ http://tmh.floonet.net/weblog/blog/2008/09/suvorov-whence-aggression-june-1941/#comments Sat, 06 Sep 2008 18:28:33 +0000 thegnomes http://tmh.floonet.net/weblog/?p=20 In Viktor Suvorov’s paper, Who was Planning to Attack Whom in June 1941, Hitler or Stalin?, we are introduced to more details about Russia’s planning and preparation for war on Germany. In light of current events (which are seldom alluded to here), particularly, in the Caucasus on the part of Georgia, we can see how even the most unequivocal aggression can be turned on its head with the flick of the Mighty Wurlitzer switch.

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‘Terror Bombing’, Starvation and Mechanical Force http://tmh.floonet.net/weblog/blog/2008/03/terror-bombing-starvation-and-mechanical-force/ http://tmh.floonet.net/weblog/blog/2008/03/terror-bombing-starvation-and-mechanical-force/#comments Sat, 22 Mar 2008 02:21:18 +0000 thegnomes http://tmh.floonet.net/weblog/anti-war-propaganda/2008/03/21/16 Another article that’s been a part of the Anti-War Propaganda section for quite a while. It is remarkable for its insights and wisdom regarding some of the worst aspects of empire, particularly, the American version. The article is now available in pdf form, presented the way it originally appeared in the 9 Jan. 1999 issue of Economic and Political Weekly, Bombay.

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