Wednesday, October 06, 2004
Insecure middle class social climber that I am, I went to a concert yesterday at the Royal Festival Hall. In the toilets I saw John Pilger. Five, maybe six, years ago I read Hidden Agendas and felt my mind blown; a whole world of politics opened up. Following the trail I looked into other writers with a Pilger connection, examined more carefully some of the situations he described… I remember considering writing to him to thank him for this, to thank him for changing the way I think. I didn’t, of course, but I thought about it. Back then meeting him in some public conveniences would seem impossibly exciting and I would probably have spoken to him and been embarrassingly sincere. As it turned out I just thought, “Hey look! John Pilger. Now where was I…” Pilger and I have parted ways of late; I no longer rely on him to make my moral judgements for me. The path he started me on has made me question his own worldview and see, to my mind, his limitations. Still, I thank him for kicking it off. It's all too easy to sneer at those first steps, those "Introducting..." guides and best ofs, but we must all start somewhere. Nice one John, here’s to you.*
*Although I notice that your identification with the oppressed didn’t prevent you from picking the most expensive tickets in the house, right front and centre.
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*Although I notice that your identification with the oppressed didn’t prevent you from picking the most expensive tickets in the house, right front and centre.
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