re Pipes' defence against the criticism of Campus Watch

Submitted by Jascha Kessler (United States), May 12, 2006 at 18:43

Perhaps one of the sources of irritation with that Mearsheimer/Walt attack on Israel and Jews in general per se, as it seems, is their use of the word "Lobby." I suppose, had they written of Israel lobbyists, meaning all the many groups acting in the US to influence the public, and educate the public, and influence the government's policy-makers in Congress and the Executive, they might have escaped the immediate dissection of the obviously inferior and tendentious "scholarship." But then, they would have had to have written a scholarly treatise, with bibliography and footnotes and careful discussion of what, who, when, why and how?

But the redification of a lobby and lobbyists, who are "legion," is a vague and unacceptable term, the broadest of black brushes imaginable. One can only imagine what George Orwell might have done to their work; but then, he did it long long ago in his essay, "Politics and the English Language." the novel 1984 takes up this misuse of language in a narrative, dramatic fictional form. The essay will do for blogs and bloogers, if people go back and read it. I taught it for decades to Freshman English students, because writing is thinking. We have many who write today, but as to real thinking...?

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