SIDNEY HOOK
205
ally invariant.
It
also ignores the dispute over the scientific validity
of the entire psychoanalytic approach and the virtues of Freud's
literary and mythopoetic works.
The most conspicuous of the readings elevated to a classic wor–
thy of detailed study in this course is obviously Fanon's
The Wretched
of the Earth.
It has truly become a classic among third-world terrorist
guerilla groups. It preaches revolutionary terror and force without
limit against colonialists and all native elements supporting them,
and against any independent native party that proposes peaceful so–
lutions . It is not enough that colonial peoples achieve their in–
dependence, according to Fanon. That liberation , to be genuine,
must and can only be achieved by violence . One must not shrink
from the hecatombs of victims that result from violence because they
indicate that "between oppressors and oppressed everything can be
solved by force." Fanon believes this literally-even the economic
problems at the basis of colonialism can be solved by the creative
potential of force . The basket case economies of countries liberated
by violence-even of countries never occupied by colonialists-are
of course a legacy of colonial terror on this hysterical view.
Some persons have been shocked by the appearance of Fanon's
book on the required reading list because of its rhetorical incitement
to blood lust . This reaction is misguided . True , it is a very bad book.
But one of the limitations of Great Books courses is the absence of
the study of some very bad books that have had momentous histori–
cal significance, like Hitler's
Mein Kampf.
Pedagogically one of the
best preparations for membership in a liberal society is familiarity
with the mixture of sophisms, fable, distorted fact, and self-sacrifi–
cial mindless fanaticism that constitutes so much of the literature of
the political , religious and racial totalitarian doctrines of the modern
age . If time permits, error should be confronted and countered even
in its most persuasive form .
What is scandalous is not the appearance of Fanon's jeremiad
on this list but the absence of any replies to the cult of violence . Let
the students read Fanon but also Gandhi, if not Gandhi then Martin
Luther King, or the most powerful of all voices in behalf of non–
violence, Leo Tolstoy .
It
is not that they are free of legitimate
criticism, but they make an effective intellectual reply to Fanon.
Even when the opposite of an error is itself an error if absolutized ,
both errors are not
equally
in error or equally mischievous in their
end effects . I am assuming of course that as educators we are pri-
