[econoclectic] EclectEcon: Nick Cohen, Reformed Leftist, Sees the Light

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Posted by EclectEcon:
Nick Cohen, Reformed Leftist, Sees the Light
http://econoclectic.powerblogs.com/posts/1172700273.shtml


   Nick Cohen has had an epiphany and is distressed that so many
   left-wing people cannot see the dangers of fundamentalist Islam,
   especially as it is manifested by extremists and terrorists. From a
   review by Peter Obern and cited in [1]The Guardian:

     The collapse of socialism in the Eighties and the rise of what he
     calls Islamic fascism have changed everything. Cohen asserts that
     the left's hatred of America means it is no longer able to tell the
     difference between right and wrong. It suffers from the syndrome
     identified by Bertrand Russell 80 years ago, a belief in the
     superior virtue of the oppressed. This dogma has led left-wing
     writers and activists to make fellow cause with bigots, murderers,
     terrorists, gay-bashers, women-haters and the most dangerous kind
     of anti-semite.
     Cohen skilfully shows how the left perversely sets its moral
     compass by the United States. When America refused to invade Iraq
     in 1991, it faced charges of collusion with a totalitarian regime.
     When it did go in some 12 years later, it was accused of taking
     part in an imperial adventure. For the left, whatever America does
     is by definition evil. Cohen is at his best as a painstakingly
     forensic reporter and he marshals his evidence with flair and
     rigour. Chomsky's erratic public career, including a brief spell as
     apologist for Pol Pot, gets the treatment it probably deserves. The
     section on how the Socialist Workers Party (a marginal organisation
     taken with perplexing seriousness by Cohen) evolved from a
     half-baked Marxist sub-group into a repository for Muslim grievance
     is very nicely done.
     He is at his very best when he exposes the dishonesty of the
     liberal press. Here he is on the Independent's report of the murder
     of the American green party activist Marla Ruzicka by an Islamic
     suicide bomber in Baghdad in April 2005: 'The piece was headlined,
     "The senseless death of the woman who fought George Bush", which
     read as if her murder wasn't a premeditated act by a religious
     fanatic from the ultra-right but George Bush's fault. Her legacy
     "should put many politicians in America, and in our own country, to
     shame," the Independent continued, while carefully - and shamefully
     - avoiding criticism of her killer.'

   But not everyone likes the book or even sees much value in it. As you
   might expect, The Guardian quotes others who detested it, which pushes
   it to number one on my list of what to order next.
   Rule of thumb: if leftist reviewers of The Guardian don't like a book,
   it is probably very good.

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References

   Visible links
   1. http://observer.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,2000179,00.html
   2. http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=theeconoclast-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=0007229690&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FDF7D5&f=ifr
   3. http://rcm-uk.amazon.co.uk/e/cm?t=eclectecon-21&o=2&p=8&l=as1&asins=0007229690&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=F9F3D0&f=ifr
   4. http://rcm-ca.amazon.ca/e/cm?t=theeconocla03-20&o=15&p=8&l=as1&asins=0007229690&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFADF&f=ifr

   Hidden links:
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