[lit-ideas] Re: Calley
- From: "Lawrence Helm" <lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 4 Jun 2010 12:47:04 -0700
Robert,
I said you were technically right because it is impossible for anyone to write
anything without ambiguity, and I could understand after reading your note (but
not before else I would have rephrased mine) how you could take one wing of
possible meanings while I intended another.
But since you are being a stickler for my words in isolation, let me reproduce
them:
Mike,
I know that Goebbels was highly educated, but I can't think of anyone else that
was. The Third Reich was commonly thought to be peopled by "thugs." Heidegger
was highly disappointed in the educational level of the Fascist leaders. Those
who did study on their own, it seems to me, were more likely to study some
pseudoscience, or something bizarre like anthroposophy than anything we in
civilized places like Memphis might study.
But I could be wrong. Give me some examples of highly educated Nazis besides
Goebbels.
Lawrence
Note, that my words were addressed to Mike; surely then it is not an
unreasonable stretch of grammar to infer implicatures (to borrow Speranza's
word) that presuppose the note I was responding to. Your insistence that my
note must upon being written stand alone and no way presuppose the note I was
responding to is at the very least unreasonable -- at least it seems so to me.
Lawrence
From: lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of Robert Paul
Sent: Friday, June 04, 2010 11:51 AM
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Calley
Lawrence wrote
Hmmm.
You are technically right because I didn't repeat the words of Mike that I was
disagreeing with, namely ". . . that much if not most of the leadership of the
Third Reich were highly educated and cultured." However, I didn't intend to
expand Mike's "Nazi leadership" to "all Nazis." I had in mind "Nazi
Leadership." And Joseph Mengele was never a Nazi leader. Speer was educated
as an architect and my impression is that his duties were restricted to
architectural enterprises. He was sentenced to 20 years at Nuremberg, for
using forced labor in his building activities....
However, I'll abandon my quibble and give you Speers -- and I already conceded
Goebbels. Still, Goebbels and Speer are weak shoulders to carry the burden of
Geary's assertion that "much if not most of the leadership of the Third Reich
were highly educated and cultured."
Your quibble? I'm not Mike (and I have a birth certificate to prove it). I'd
thought that when you asked for some examples of highly educated Nazis, other
than Goebbels, you wanted examples of highly educated Nazis other than
Goebbels. In other words, I took you at your word. You ask for some apples, and
I give you some (which happen to be Yellow Delicious), only to be told that,
although what you really wanted were some Granny Smiths, I'm technically right.
Technology never ceases to amaze me.
Robert Paul
I know that Goebbels was highly educated, but I can't think of anyone else that
was. The Third Reich was commonly thought to be peopled by "thugs." Heidegger
was highly disappointed in the educational level of the Fascist leaders. Those
who did study on their own, it seems to me, were more likely to study some
pseudoscience, or something bizarre like anthroposophy than anything we in
civilized places like Memphis might study.
But I could be wrong. Give me some examples of highly educated Nazis besides
Goebbels.
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