Pilger, John - Tell Me No Lies
(09 September 07)Tell Me No Lies
Peter Bore reviews Tell Me No Lies by John Pilger (Random House 2005)
(Reviewed June 2007)
John Pilger tends to polarise his readers. They either admire him greatly or doubt his truthfulness. The former will find this book as compelling as ever and the latter group should not let their preconceptions deter them because very little of this sizeable tome (600+ pages) is written by Pilger. It is a collection, from the past 50 years, of his choice of articles by other journalists who have uncovered, or sought to uncover, things which other agencies (usually governments) have tried to conceal.It includes Martha Gellhorn on Dachau, Wilfred Burchett’s account of being the first westerner to enter Hiroshima after the bomb (he was assured by the American Military that no radiation reached ground level), Ed Murrow’s broadcasts on McCarthyism, Paul Foot on the concealment of the Pan Am Lockerbie bombing, Robert Fisk on the Sabra and Chatila massacres, Seumas Miln on the British Government’s attempts with Robert Maxwell to discredit Arthur Scargill by claiming he had diverted funds intended for striking miners to pay off his mortgage (he did not have a mortgage at the time) and many more. It ends with two short articles by Edward Said, a writer who is usually as dense and complex as Don Cupitt. These two articles are striking exceptions. They were written shortly before Said’s death and are crystal clear expositions of his thoughts on Islam and terrorism.
This book is not exactly about theology, but it should be of interest to SoF members for three reasons:
1. SoF is committed to openness in its discussions. Most of the articles are about attempts to conceal information or lie about it and frequently both.
2. Christianity and most other religions have focussed on three relationships. That between God and mankind, that between a man and his inner self and that between man and his fellow humans. The first has been the most heavily emphasised but it is rapidly becoming redundant as we increasingly view god as a human creation. The role of those who think about and value the spiritual dimension must, almost inevitably, focus more in the future on the interaction between man and his fellow humans.
3. “….religious thinking always includes a political dimension and makes implicit comment on current political values.” (Don Cupitt in “Radical Theology” Polebridge Press 2006)
“…..religion has the right to criticise the kind of arrogant totalitarian politics that tries to make a god of the state and to make political ideology into compulsory dogma.. (Don Cupitt in Radical Theology Polebridge Press 2006)
This book is mostly about the role of supposedly democratic governments attempting to undermine democracy by concealing or fabricating the information which everyone needs in order to make informed choices at the ballot box. A brief reflection on how close the world has come to disaster because of issues like global warming or the various conflicts in the Middle East and how in both cases governments have denied or concealed the truth will affirm the importance of this theme.
