Eric Brandom
@ebrandom.bsky.social
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Intellectual history, here decontextualized. Especially modern France, history of political thought, and socialism. And Kansas, because that's where I live "als Gelehrter, der durch Schriften zum eigentlichen Publikum, nämlich der Welt, spricht."
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Eric Brandom
@ebrandom.bsky.social
· Feb 22
Reposted by Eric Brandom
Reposted by Eric Brandom
Reposted by Eric Brandom
Reposted by Eric Brandom
Reposted by Eric Brandom
Reposted by Eric Brandom
![Photo of a passage from "The Watch That Ends the Night"
Jerome stopped and stared at me with incandescent eyes.
"Try and understand this-the fascists have brought back tor-ture, and torture calls for martyrs. And what else is fascism but the logical product of the capitalist system?"
"What do you mean—torture calls for martyrs?"
"Simply this. Unless a man is able to stand up and look the torturer in the eye and say, 'I'm not afraid,' torture becomes the way of the world. It's as simple as that."
"Is it really as simple as that?"
"No." He shook his head impatiently. "No, because underneath it all is the plain economic exploitation of a rotten world.
The communists are the only people who understand that. How can you pretend they're not one hundred percent right when they say that at a time like this the life of a single individual isn't worth a snap of the fingers? Wasn't Debs right when he said that so long as there was a soul in prison he wasn't free?
What does a single marriage count in a balance like that? It isn't easy being me. I know what all this means. [Highlighted sentence:] This evil inside the human animal-the fascists are charming it out like a cobra out of its hole and the capitalists let them do it because they think it's good for business. You think I'm abandoning Sally by leaving for Spain. I tell you, if I don't leave for Spain then I really do abandon her to a future of fascism and concentration camps."](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2hwwem55ce6djnk6bn62cstr/bafkreidpecodfhnvdaguaenvcaa34gt4ic566rqz6aiz5j5bjgxc74x3te@jpeg)
Reposted by Eric Brandom
