A new report by Gary Barker and co-researchers, Evolving Men – Initial Results from the International Men and Gender Equality Survey (IMAGES), published by The International Center for Research on Women, Washington, shows changing standards regarding men and masculinity. Men increasingly embrace gender equal ideals and translate this into practices, but are held back by traditional roles and structures. Men’s own choices play a large role, but at the same time, structures and constraints are a key to understand these choices.
The IMAGES survey was to a large degree based on Norwegian research (p 64-5). This is a case of rich world research used to wider benefit, and an example of how Norwegian research can become internationalized.
I am reading Susan Weissman’s Victor Serge – The course is set on hope (Verso, London 2001), a remarkable book on many accounts, not least showing more of the Stalinist purge in Russia and abroad. Serge was a Russian Bolshevik who was also a relative free-thinker, barely escaping Stalin’s purges, publishing a lot of comments and experiences. Serge documented what was possibly the first holocaust, or the overlooked twin of the holocaust of the Jews later – the systematic large scale death campaign against “rival” revolutionary factions, especially Trotskyists, but in fact everyone daring to gainsay Stalin.
Serge was sympathetic to Trotsky, but developed doubts, and characterizes the authoritarian tendencies of Stalin’s opponents also. A main matter is the documentation regarding the purge of the revolutionaries in Russia. Serge wrote that there was scarcely an “old” comrade left – they had all been imprisoned or killed by Stalin. Serge did not use the word holocaust, but he did argue that Stalinism created perhaps the bloodiest counter-revolution in history, killing off all the opponents.
This book is mainly about Serge’s biography, with limited citations from his writings, but very valuable nevertheless. Especially interesting is Serge’s portrait of the way that the Stalinist pressure increased authoritarian tendencies even within the opposition.
Highly recommended.
I have finished reading Jonathan Littell’s The kindly ones, 1026 pages in the Norwegian translation, a remarkable book, even if I retain some scepticism on the psychology level. SS officers need not be personal killers, like the protagonist in this book, yet Littell’s way of treating this theme can also be seen as a way for creative literature to make its voice heard, to create an experimental field – and as such, very interesting.
The last part of the book contains a scathing critique of the idea that the Nazi gas chamber and elimination strategy was only directed against the Jews. It was directed against everyone “inferior” in Nazi race terms, the Jews were only the first victims. Empirically, in some contexts, the proportion of communists killed may have been as large as the proportion of Jews, and the main strategical matter was to eliminate everyone who were opposed to the new order.
Littell thereby also goes beyond David Goldhagen’s thesis that the holocaust was about the Jews and that more or less “any” German supported it. Littell’s fiction portrait of Nazi power basically willing to eliminate all opposition is more realistic. Goldhagen’s idea that almost every German was behind this, is not directly addressed by Littell, but is – mainly correct, I think – undermined by his storytelling, showing how even SS officers had a lot of private doubt and problems regarding the killing machine that they participated in.
It may be strange to post to this section through a kind of extended “beat poem”, but OK here it is.
Egypt with fire in her eyes
Home is where the heart is
But when there is no work, no food, no future – there is no home
Egypt has arisen with fire in her eyes
So-called apathy and lethargy, but now, banners in the streets
People showing up, we want human rights, and we will not yield to dictatorship
We don’t flee, we don’t give up to fear, we won’t use violence, and we stop looters and violence
I bow deeply in honour, as I watch street demonstrations in Cairo, Alexandria and other places in Egypt
It is not the sword of Islam, it belongs to all religions
It is not the superiority of Marxism, Liberalism or any other -ism
It is not the voice of any single belief
Instead, it is the big voice of all, of democracy, the experience of history
A power of old, a sister and brother, an ancient parent, a deep prayer
Learning from the best, South Africa not just for the black man, not the killing, but peacefully, together
Many things can come out of this, and for a poor country, it won’t be easy
Yet nothing can stop the forwards momentum, if people hold on to justice and democracy
People power is old women, not just young men
People power is a critique of those who have traditionally represented people
People power is an old power, like the power of cancelling debts, freeing labourers, letting the Jews go, equalizing beliefs
People power is a new power, women as much as men, peace before violence
Egypt has arisen – and the fire in her eyes gives hope to the whole world
I am just a European watching Egypt’s revolution on TV
I am just exposing my troubled mind
I am steeped with killing solutions, my history is full of it, even in small Norway, like the persecution of the Sami people
The west has blood on its hands – how can it help, making things better, from now on?
I am tired of the north African world being a despotic world, why can’t they get a chance like everyone else?
When I was young, South East Asia was a poor and war-torn region, now it is prospering
South America had dictatorships, now it has democracy
Now is time for Africa to move
My mother barely escaped the Nazis, fleeing to Sweden in World War II
My father fought with the British marine, securing convoys to Murmansk
My uncle was in the concentration camp Sachsenhausen, and barely survived
My other uncle fought in the Norwegian resistance
Egyptians, unite for democracy, and you will have the victory on your doorstep
Develop democracy for all, in everyday life, and it will lead to the developments you want, for all the people
We Norwegians united, to create a democratic state from 1814 onwards
We resisted colonialism and occupation, and won
We have some fire too
As world citizens, we were all betrayed by the horrendous 20th century killing solutions
Nazism especially, but also Stalinism
I was born in 1952
Seven years after the gas chambers
The gulags still ongoing
The two worst horrors humanity has yet seen
Why did these horrors happen?
Capitalism did not work out, not for the people, only for the rich
Reactions appeared, these were misused, catastrophies followed
Capitalism’s antidotes, its vaccines, like Marxism. were initially good, but were misled and became killing solutions instead
Why could such beliefs be misused?
They missed a central point, democracy
It was so weakly developed, that power people could take the front instead
The first holocaust, before the Nazi execution of Jews, was the Stalinist killing of revolutionary opponents
My uncle told me, German communists were the first inmates in Sachsenhausen
It all started with imprisonment of the opposition, breaking the first democratic principle
“Freedom is the freedom of the person that disagrees with me”
This is why I look into the eyes of Egypt and see a fire that is different
How can the democratic fire of street demonstrations remake a nation?
It is the spirit of democracy that makes people rise, the need for dignity, not the right belief
Perhaps there is a greater historical purpose, to get the message across, to get the old power to work
Don’t give in to factionalism, split interests or fundamentalist causes
Just get the little gold ring in place in the middle
Gold not for its value but for its prophecy
The voice of wisdom
To unite, to make democracy work
Women, as much as men
Is the ring whole?
At first it seems broken, but you can find the missing parts, they are there
The fire creates the ring
The fire in her eyes
Home is where the heart is
Egypt is our home today
The once-successful Norwegian group Babel Fish, relocated to Florø Melody Grand Prix, was voted first place into the final yesterday, with a father’s love song to his child, Depend on me.
Kim Stanley Robinson is one of my favourite storytellers, stretching from Californian light to Mars explorations, and he does not disappoint, this time. The book travels a difficult terrain for a sf writer, the historical novel, but there, Robinson excels, giving Galileo flesh and blood, a very good (and possibly quite accurate) portrait. The weakest parts of the book are actually the sf parts, although they do serve their main function of dragging Galileo into a wider debate on enlightenment and democratization. What if Galileo had been burned at the stake? The threat was very real. The world could have been much more religious-dogmatic than it became. Robinson’s speculations here are high value even if his sci-fi concept is a bit thin. This is a good historical novel “plus”.
Programming, by my work research method, is like living in a house being renovated. For doing something simple one must move fifteen things and find three. Or, a car that is being fabricated, with modifications between each turn.
– Øystein Gullvåg Holter
OK I admit I am guilty. I put this book on the shelf for two years, despite getting a copy as a gift (from Preben Z. Møller). I am a delayed reader of this bestseller. Why?
I did not want a muddle of postmodern thinking and real fact (I thought). I already had a large shelf, three meters total, literature from World War II, including much on Hitler and the German build up. It was only when I got the same book this Christmas, from my son, that I got round to actually read the thousand pages block of a book. I had practical family experience also – my mother, having to flee to Sweden, my uncles, one of them successfully fleeing persecution to join the Norwegian resistance, the other not. My uncle Johan was caught and almost perished in Sachsenhausen.
So did I have to read all this again?
Turned out, yes. I could no longer put it on hold.
The book is so good that it complements rather than detracts from my collection of war histories and memories. It goes into the head of an SS officer serving at the Eastern front, becoming a specialist in the killing of people. It is mainly very realistic, not sensationalist, and when it does go in with a literary angle, it is thought out and demarcated.
My uncle Johan who served in Sachsenhausen is dead now, as is my uncle Eric who joined the resistance, but I feel this book would have been important for them. Also personally, in the way that Littel goes into the social psychology of the violence, and the inner resistance against the Nazi thinking. This inner resistance existed – although it was overwhelmed.
My mother Harriet Holter, fleeing to Sweden because of Nazi persecution, often said, later – never forget, the struggle was against the Nazis – not Germans as such. My father, Ingemund Gullvåg, serving in allied convoy protection to Murmansk, a lifeline in the war, agreed. The Nazi system was the enemy, not the Germans.
Norway did not want violence. We were announced as Arians, a white billing, and yet attacked by the Germans in April 1940. It was a shock. Norwegian scholars, especially Kristian Ottosen, have recorded the makeup of the Nazi punishment system, perhaps more clearly than anyone else.
Littell’s work does not give any easy answer “why did Germans support the Holocaust”. Instead, it gives a view of the whole context – including not only revenge-tuned society, but also a “black pedagogy” in Alice Miller’s terms. The Holocaust was a result not only of bad social structure but also of authoritarian socialization. Much can be said about this – but Littel’s picture is convincing.
It is both a pain and a pleasure to get through this book, as it should be. What amazes is that there is scarcely a word too much, or a paragraph without a purpose. A crash course in aggression, in regressive politics, and the male mind – with women contributing too.
Many people, after World War 2, kept silent. Littell puts the silence frequency to the extreme, so to speak, portraying a Nazi officer as a killer, hidden in the background. The truth, or just some of it? History will judge, but there is evidence e g regarding the “Reichsfuhrer” Himmler pointing in the same direction. Himmler, Eichman and Littell’s fictious officer Aue were all very rational killers, not emotional at all, but their killing did have a personal dimension. This is where Littell goes a bit ahead of the currently established evidence, with mixed results, though his attempts to lead the way in this dark and obscured landscape are very important and worthy.
Amazing sound
Check out the Nik Bartsch Ronin: Lllyria, recent ECM vinyl album (2 x 180 g LP). The music is good. But what catches the ear is that the sound is outstanding.
I never had this much dynamics from an ECM LP before. Something must have happened in the studio. Listening to the album from my kitchen, playing in the living room next to it, I several times thought: “someone must be there”, “what is this”, “sounds coming up more immediate”. In my setup and home, this means an outstanding sound. I think you would get the effect also. There is a substantial sound quality improvement.
I congratulate ECM, who have been a forwards force in music and sound quality for many years. I also congratulate Nik and his group, which I did not know before, for an excellent album. There is some pentatonal work here, and I am reminded of works in the same wholistic direction, like Zappa, mentioned earlier in this blog, and also Ardley, Neil: Kaleidoscope of rainbows, some Can, some Kratwerk, even some Butterfield Blues Band East/West. Time scales brought to the fore – a pure joy, with this kind of great sound.
I am not sure about the best albums of 2010 and won’t say anything about that. This text is only about music that I have enjoyed, that has grasped out to me, in some way.
Gayngs: Related, a great album for pursuing some central pop ideas. Some work out quite good, others so and so.
Tom Petty: Mojo. Graced by its in-room collective playing.
From 2008: Mew: No more stories. Patricia Barber: Mythologies.
Earlier albums enjoyed in2010:
Opeth Blackburry Park, Damnation and others.
Mastodon: Crack the skye, Blood Mountain.
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, first album.
I also has a bucket of older classics at hand, among these giving good listening last year, e g Steely Dan: The Royal Scam.
