Monday 23 November 2009

The insidious POWER of the "moral high ground" to censor

LINK to Guardian article, An insidious argument for censorship, by David Henshawthe executive producer of Channel 4's Dispatches programme.

I haven't seen either documentary ("Undercover Mosque"  and "Inside Britain's Israel Lobby"), but agree very much with what David Henshaw writes.

I consider myself a judeophile and friend of Israel, but to suggest that British (and American) Jews don't represent a splintered, but nevertheless very powerful lobby for Israel is absurd. Of course they do, and generally I support them.

However, I prefer my friends (Jewish or otherwise) to be honest and open, and not to intimidate their critics with accusations of racism or anti-Semitism, which, as the author, says, is an underhand attempt at censorship, of suppressing unwelcome views, questions or criticism, rather than engaging with them.

It is a classic example of the POWER of an assumed "moral high ground" used to control and manipulate society to one's own perceived (ideological, religious, political and/or economic) advantage, and as important today (though much diversified) as it was when the Catholic Church had a monopoly over it.

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