Those of my comrades on the left mystified by the lack of genuine debate around Labour’s mayoral fiasco should perhaps consider the following passage from Christopher Hitchens’s 1999 book on the Clintons, No One Left To Lie To (Verso). He ends with a discussion of the criticism he received when he agreed to testify against Clinton (page 148 of the UK edition).
“Hannah Arendt once wrote that the great success of Stalinism among the intellectuals could be attributed to one annihilating tactic. Stalinism replaced all debate about the merit of an argument, or a position, or even a person, with an inquiry about motive. I can attest, in a minor key, to the effect of this tactic in smaller matters. It was instantly said of me that I did what I did in order to promote this very book — still then uncompleted. Other allegations against me failed to rise to this elevated level. The truth or otherwise of what I said was not disputed so much as ignored. When the finger points at the moon, the Chinese say, the idiot looks at the finger. As a much-scrutinized digit, I can attest to the effect of that too.”
I too can attest in a minor key, in yet smaller matters to the effect of such latter-day Stalinism, although the truth of what I have said has not been ignored. Check out the comments on my last post on this matter if you are in any doubt that people should start looking at the moon rather than the finger.
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