Intellectual Whores
Rixon Stewart
Just imagine that you were able to put something wrong in the world to right; you could choose any of the world’s problems to fix but you would only have the power to remedy that one, no other. Which one would you choose? Hunger? Poverty? War? It’s difficult to know which one simply because there are so many to choose from. So you might decide that the remedy lay in changing something more fundamental, like erasing pride or greed. But then again: which one would you choose?
You might, for example, decide to eradicate ignorance; only to find that, upon your wish being granted, you had created a world where there was no ignorance but a lot of very clever people building highly advanced weapon systems. On the other hand you might decide to eliminate anger and hatred from this world; only to find that, with your wish being granted, that you had created a world where there was no anger or hatred but a lot of self-indulgence, ill health and drug addiction.
Either way it would be far from perfect but then that’s the way this world is; the struggles and challenges that it offer’s provide us with a perfect opportunity to develop ourselves. You could liken it to the sort of assault course training that soldiers do; the obstacles and challenges we are faced with are exactly that: challenges to be overcome and by doing so we become a little stronger and sometimes a little wiser too.
So while we live in a world that’s far from perfect it offers all we need to grow as individuals. And the sort of qualities we can acquire here are the proverbial ones: like courage or patience or compassion these are not simply learned from a book. We find them within ourselves when we are faced with danger or tragedy or loss.
Which is why we included Jemima Khan’s story of her experiences in ‘Nightmare Aboard Flight BA 2069’: an exciting account of just such a realisation. The fact that it took such a dramatic episode to bring this about is a measure of how, not only Jemima Khan, but most of us are so far removed from this realisation in our everyday lives.
Still there are so many problems in this world it would be amiss not to try and fix at least one: so you might wish to see a wider recognition given to Dr Matthias Rath (1). Like many ground-breaking discoveries his findings are really quite simple and could transform the lives of millions. That his discovery has barely been acknowledged is an indication of how the interests of Government, Big Money, the Trans-national pharmaceutical company’s and the media are now inextricably linked.
Alternatively you might decide to amend one of history’s wrongs but again you would face the same difficulty. There are so many shadows in our past, even in our recent past that the problem would be in choosing just one episode amongst many to rectify. And making that choice even harder is the fact that much in our history has been misrepresented and distorted.
And talking of misrepresentation reminds us of an exchange we had with a journalist from the Express group. During the court case over Richard Tomlinson’s book last year we phoned the Express and asked whether they were aware of his testimony on Princess Diana’s death. When pressed, one of the paper’s senior journalists waffled on about “freedom of speech” and “press integrity”. Which all sounds very laudable, but guess what?
They knew about Tomlinson’s affidavit.
So while they may talk about ‘press freedom’ they won’t publish his affidavit or even refer to it; and these are the very people who are supposed to inform public opinion. Is it any wonder that journalists have been referred to as “intellectual whores”? With such depths of hypocrisy and self-deceit you don’t need censorship; the journalists will do it themselves and still expect prizes and praise for their ‘journalistic integrity’.
Finally I feel that I should apologise for comparing main-stream media journalists to whores. That is an insult to working girls the world over. Sorry girls.
(1) See ‘Letter To Tony Blair’ by Dr. Mathias Rath MD
http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/article.asp?ID=123
Last updated 07/04/2005