"Deconstructing" The Holocaust

British historian David Irving's denial of the holocaust in Austria in 1989 bears all the hallmarks of the intellectual genre "deconstructionism".

Deconstructionism is the discipline coined by Jacques Derrida and most widely attributed to Milton scholar Professor Stanley Fish, which taken to its most controversial application claims the actual reality of an event is less important than the social consequences which arise out of its interpretation. Initially applied as a form of literary and legal criticism, the genre has led to some controversial debates in wider academia, particularly in the field of the sciences and history, where absolute truth is imperative to the subsistance of the the disciplines.

Whatever one's take on the trial of Irving, who is being tried in Austria at the moment where holocaust denial is illegal, it is an interesting comment on the social power that academic institutions and obscure intellectual trends still hold over society that the claims are being taken so seriously.

Comments

[Neil]

Maybe you're on to something here, but its unfair on deconstructionism to cite the Irving trial as an example of it. Irvings approach to history is to override facts with personal beliefs. To some extent all historians are guilty of this, but when the gap is so blatant and the beliefs so offensive it isn't exactly suprising there has been a backlash.

One other point is that Irving considers himself a 'historian' but has never held an academic post. He doesn't even have an undergraduate degree in history.

[Alfred Holden]

We have yet to establish the facts with regards the Holocaust. The beatification of an event that has yet to be understood from a scientific standpoint of validation is to deny due process to historians and anyone who raises the issue. Historians are never guilty with regards to their writings. They may be liable for misinterpretation and misrepresentation or leading their readers by taking events out of context. It appears that the preceding gentleman is emotional. Insofar as to Irving's credentials. His persecution is the result of his authenticity. His credibility requires dire action on the part of his detractors.

Deconstructionism, to paraphrase Steven Plaut (Prof Graduate School of Business, University of Haifa), criticised the Hebrew University of Jerusalem when they gave an honorary PHD degree to Jacque Derrida, the godfather of pseudo-philosophy of "Deconstructionism", where language is the ultimate form of tyranny and source of control of us oppressed folks by those evil elites.

As professor Plaut states: "For deconstructionists, proof and disproof are unimportant. They accept as axiomatic the claim that social power structures control everything in the world, I guess including all "narratives," ...".

And this excerpt: "Deconstructionism attracts a certain sort of adolescent mind because of its cynicism and dismissal of rational thought and science."