[PREV - NATIONS_ABOVE]    [TOP]

COCKBURN

                                             July      22, 2012
                                             September 14, 2013
A eulogy, of sorts, on the occasion
of Alexander Cockburn's death (from
material posted as commentary at              http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2012/07/in-memory-of-alexander-cockburn-as-he-deserves-to-be-remembered.html
Delong's blog):


   I was just reading George Scialabba's take on
   Alexander Cockburn the other day (in the essay
   "What are Intellectuals Good For?")--
   Scialabba considered Cockburn a figure like
   George Bernard Shaw: an admirable writer but
   often driven by a need to be clever and          DUBIOUS_FLARE
   "iconoclastic" into some dubious territory.

   Myself, when I was 20 or so, I read Cockburn's
   "The Threat", which argued that the military
   complex was intentionally exaggerating the
   Soviet threat to justify its budget.

   This is a thesis which has worn well with
   time-- that bogeyman suddently evaporated
   with the fall of the Berlin Wall, which
   might make one wonder what the fuss was
   about-- but at the time I hadn't thought
   he'd proved his case very well.

              Following his references took me
              to the much better James Fallows
              book "The Nation", which counts
              for something I guess.


--------
[NEXT - WHAT_ABOUT_THE_WALL]