12/29/2004|||110434497521549168||||||
RABAN'S RAMBLES

If you need yet another reminder why some liberals seem intent on losing elections, dip into Jonathan Raban's lengthy New York Review of Books essay on the War On Terror. Raban, a fine writer, makes some reasonable points here and there. But what imp of the perverse makes him want to praise Adam Curtis's ludicrous BBC documentary series, The Power of Nightmares, a programme which, aside from portraying Leo Strauss as a latter-day Dr No, claimed that the threat from Al Qaeda was a figment of the imagination dreamt up by western politicians intent on casting a spell over a deluded public? (I recommend David Aaronovitch's rebuttal.) Even Raban accepts that the Bin Laden conspiracy theory makes no sense, so why on earth does he think the argument "is well worth putting forward"? I despair. As for his hope that the series be shown in the US before long, I think that would be a great idea, if only to give Americans the chance to see what kind of nonsense can get a prime-time slot in Britain.
|||Clive|||http://clivedavis.blogspot.com/2004/12/rabans-rambles-if-you-need-yet-another.html|||12/29/2004 06:02:00 pm|||||||||
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