Neofascist bands

The Arts page article "Neofascist Bands Link Music to Anger," Oct. 27, would have done better to have explored some of the deeper reasons why young people are attracted to neo-Nazi movements than a mere recounting of what happened at a rock concert.

Even in the 1920s, National Socialism was very much a youth party. The average age of members was considerably lower than that of Communists. It drew from the same kind of person: unhappy and frustrated with the status quo, and who blamed the economic woes of the nation on foreigners and big business.

Unlike communism or socialism, Nazism had no easily definable doctrines for solving economic problems, but it borrowed heavily from socialism in implementing its social policies. It saw national problems in terms of race and not class, which is one of the defining differences between the right and left.

Seeing how the skinhead phenomenon compares to this abbreviated profile of Nazis in the Weimar period would have been more useful. This is especially true as the indelicate question of poor race relations and alienation is alive and well in the United States. Given the state of society, they cannot be dismissed as a lunatic fringe whose voice has no listeners of consequence. Eugene Pomeroy, Lake Oswego, Ore.

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