but those who teach his work should not avoid his activities during World War Two or up until his death. To gloss over Pound’s words & deeds is to let the dead and wounded down in a macro war that killed millions. As the memories of WW2 fade from the folk memory the lessons of it all are also being lost. Our species sank to depths of depravity & brutality which surfaced again in the Balkans. Then on Europe’s shores are the graves of those trying to flee the Syrian war & in The Med their bones lie under the sea. 

To look at various nations in Europe the popular mood veers to populism with Britain or Ireland no exceptions. We have failed the refugees with our inability to embrace the suffering masses in a crisis. The endless surge of hard right parties air brushed and well funded has denied our hopes of ‘constant progress’. 

The Ezra Pound that promoted racial & religous hatred is indeed beyond punishment but his work must not be taught out of context. To make no stance on Pound is to avoid his behaviour as as ‘of its time’. World War One did not become an object lesson or ‘the war to end all wars’. Instead we ended up with another war that spread well beyond Europe all over again. 

What emerged from the Italian elections yesterday is sobering & worrying & we must not assume it will never happen overhere. There is no point in championing Paul Celan while teaching Ezra Pound on the same literary platform. Casa Pound have brought home to us the risks of not imposing a moral basis in our views on Ezra. We do it in other areas of thought & discourse & must not let Pound off the hook.