Information Research Weblog

The cover article in this week's New Statesman (a magazine of the left, for those unfamiliar with it) is by the American thriller writer, Sara Paretsky. It is a something that ought to be read by every librarian, information manager, documentalist, or whatever designation you prefer, since it points to developments in the USA that make Orwell's 1984 look like a bedtime story.

Paretsky states:

"We have today a government that mixes silence with lies. We have a government that has by fiat sealed presidential papers from public view. We have a government that will not reveal the names of the people who created America's energy policy because they claim that naming their advisers will undermine national security. We have a government that is trying to set up a Soviet-style system of citizens spying and reporting on each other. We have a government that recently tapped the home phones and e-mails of UN delegates from Chile, Mexico, Pakistan and Cameroon.

A chill wind is blowing today..."

A chill wind indeed! And the USA is not the only country where elected politicians are subverting the very basis upon which they were elected - leaving aside that President Bush was actually appointed by the Supreme Court. Lies, misrepresentation, news massaging - known collectively as 'spinning' constitute now the principal means whereby governments seek to mislead the electorate. And when anyone speaks out - e.g., as Martina Navratilova did in an interview recently, the media, those sturdy supporters of the freedom of speech, berate her for her 'unpatriotic' statements. Patriotism truly is the last refuge of the scoundrel.