08 February 2012

More power to Nick Cohen's elbow!

Nick Cohen (he of "What's Left?") really is one of the good guys. If his website isn't on your personal list of places to visit once a week or so, then it should be (he said, with the "now listen to me" tone of the ex-teacher). He's just published a new book on censorship, "You Can't Read This Book: Censorship in an Age of Freedom" (out now and available for your e-book reader!), and I've been trying to follow his comments and articles on his website. The core of this particular article is contained in this quote: 'When I was researching You Can't Read This Book, my study of censorship, an old joke came back to me. "You can be a famous poisoner or a successful poisoner but you can't be both". Successful censorship is hidden.'

Of course, as good liberals, whatever party we actually vote for (liberal is used here in the old(very old)-fashioned sense that John Stuart Mill used it - one who is a free, self-conscious and radical thinker for themselves), we already knew that. What makes the article relevant (and it isn't because it appears in the Jewish Chronicle) is that Cohen, as non-Jew, has always been aware and sensitive to the virulence of those who are antisemitic and who should know better: the supposed Left. Thus, we have this comment, almost immediately after the quote above: "Alarmingly, considering the virulence of its antisemitism, radical Islam is too hot to handle."

Cohen's goodness, honesty and bravery is illustrated by the story he tells in the Foreword to "What's Left?": when he wrote an article that preceded this book, the first email he got was from Anne Leslie (older British readers will remember her as a stalwart of the right-wing - but then honest with it - Daily Mail) congratulating him on his honesty on the topic but warning him that he wouldn't believe the storm of antisemitic hate mail he was about to get. He says, in his own words, that he didn't believe her, but, that it when it did come, his first reaction was "But I'm not Jewish". More important was his second reaction: "That's irrelevant. This is terrible." That set him on his current path. We should all support him and lend power to his elbow.

I don't usually promote books, but Cohen's book on censorship is available from amazon.co.uk for £7.99 with free postage and on your e-book reader for the same price (bookshop price £12.99).

The article that sparked this posting is here.

By Brian Goldfarb.

8 comments:

Shaun Downey (Jams O Donnell) said...

On the whole he's well worth the read. The only minor bubear I had with him was his repeating in What's Left the nonsense about Azar Nafisi's "Reading Lolita in Tehran" being dedicated to Paul Wolfowitz... A minor thing I know but clear that the man had never read the book.

Marc McKenzie said...

Good write-up on Cohen!  Even though I'm a New Jersey-based Yank, I'm glad I came across his blog a couple of years ago and now it's a daily destination.  I also liked WHAT'S LEFT?--it was a blunt book, but definitely worth reading. 

SnoopyTheGoon said...

 Well, we are all fallible.

SnoopyTheGoon said...

 I would say its bluntness was warranted. Sometimes you need a 2x4 to reach a desired effect.

Dick Stanley said...

Asa-non-Jew? That has a familiar ring to it, somehow.

Dick Stanley said...

You know, they want $18 for the Kindle version of his book on Amazon U.S. and that is just too much for me.

SnoopyTheGoon said...

 Uhu ;-)

SnoopyTheGoon said...

 That's a bit stiff, I agree. Amazon are getting into piracy lately with books.