DECLAN MANSFIELD,
Sir, - In an otherwise insightful review of Koba the Dread by Martin Amis, Declan Kiberd (Books, September 28th) fails to spell out the central thesis of Amis's book: why is Nazism excoriated, while Communism is not? Why is one experiment in social engineering, Nazism, viewed with horror, while another, Communism, is viewed with equanimity, even nostalgia?
Could it be that those of the Left today, in the media, in academe, in human rights organisations, in the environmental movement, in feminism, in social-democratic political parties, in the trade-union movement, are the intellectual heirs of the same thinkers who not only espoused Communism, but who turned a blind eye to the inevitable consequences of the practical application of its philosophy?
And furthermore, could the visceral anti-American, anti-capitalist, anti-Israeli, anti-globalisation mindset that unites the Left today be another manifestation of the same corrupt intellectual lineage? To paraphrase Nietzsche: Communism is dead; but considering the state the species Man is in, there will perhaps be caves, for ages yet, in which its shadow will be shown. - Yours, etc.,
DECLAN MANSFIELD,
Grange Road,
Rathfarnham,
Dublin 14.