November 21, 2006
John Pilger
"There is no War on Terrorism; it is the great game speeded up. The difference is the rampant nature of the superpower, ensuring infinite dangers for us all."
I discovered Pilger through his documentaries but he is an established writer/journalist with a great deal of awards. He has a talent for good quotes. And this is a dodo.
-
We have an extreme rightwing government in this country, although it's called the Labour government. John Pilger Heh. Good stuff. I love documentaries and critical journalism, so this is right up my alley. I'll spend some time viewing these; thanks glammajamma!
-
I used to read a lot of Pilger in New Statesman back when I could get a copy for free. I never realized he's an Aussie 'til today. From the Wikipedia link: Pilger is an example of the exodus of Australian intellectuals from Australia to Britain in the 1950s and 1960s which included Barry Humphries, Clive James, and Germaine Greer. Not certain I'd include Barry Humphries in an exodus of intellectuals. Not even sure about Clive James.
-
Pilger is an awful wanker for whom 2 + 2 always equals somewhere north of sixty. Try A Secret Country, his little contribution to the Oz bicentennial. The country he describes therein (ssh! it's a secret!) is totally unrecognisable to anyone who actually lives there. As he has not for many many years.
-
Thanx for killing my post Wolof! Gawd!
-
Pilger is an awful wanker... Try A Secret Country, his little contribution to the Oz bicentennial. Well, one swallow and all that. Pilger's an unreconstructed trot and a dissenting voice in an all-too-uniform British media. He's a polemicist and an ideologue and he's both wrong and off the wall quite frequently, but he's nevertheless presenting a position that's underrepresented or not at all represented.
-
His Israel documentary is spot on. All his criticisms are completely in line with many intellectuals and other journalists. His opinions on the subject may be radical for many Americans, but a great deal of the world shares his opinions on Palestine. I won't go any further on the subject though, I think that topic has been thoroughly covered in other threads.
-
Pilger's documentary film Death of a Nation is the standard cinematic record of what happened in East Timor from 1975-1994 (a genocide killing almost 200,000 people). His honesty and courage in clandestinely reporting the story of that atrocity -- while it was unfolding -- earn him the highest esteem in my book. I also liked his book Heroes.
-
I think that topic has been thoroughly covered in other threads. No it hasn't! *turbocharges keyboard*