M`I 5-Pers ecution - Bernar d Le vin expre sses h is vie ws

The. article of which part is reproduced below was penned by Bernard Levin
for the. Features section of the Times on 21 September 1991. To my mind, it
described the situation at the time and in particular a recent. meeting with
a friend, during which I for the first time admitted to. someone other than
my GP that I had been subjected. to a conspiracy of harassment over the
previous year. and a half.


At the. time this article was written I had believed for some time that
columnists in the Times and other journalists. had been making references to
my situation. Nothing. unusual about this you may think, plenty of people
have the same sort of ideas. and obviously the papers aren't writing about
them, so. why should my beliefs not be as false as those of others?

What makes this article so extraordinary is. that three or four days
immediately preceding its. publication, I had a meeting with a friend,
during the course of. which we discussed the media persecution, and in
particular that by Times columnists. It seemed to me, reading. the article
by Levin in Saturday’s paper, that he was. describing in some detail his
"artist’s impression" of that meeting. Most telling are. the final
sentences, when he writes, "The madman. bursts into tears, and swears it is
all true. And it is." Although. I did not "burst into tears" (he seems to be
using a bit of poetic licence and exaggerating) I did. try hard to convince
my friend that it was. all true; and I am able to concur with Mr Levin,
because, of. course, it is.

At. the beginning of the piece Levin reveals a fear of being attacked by the
"irrational" subject of his story, saying "I have no reason to believe. that
he is violent, but he should certainly be approached. with caution". This
goes back to the xenophobic propaganda of "defence". against a "threat"
which was. seen at the very beginning of the harassment. The impression of a
"madman running loose" who. needs to be controlled through an agency which
assigns to itself the mantle. of the "police" is also one which had been
expressed. elsewhere.

In the final paragraph of this extract,. his reference to Everyman’s Library
as. having "died a lingering and shameful death a decade or so ago" shows
clearly what sort of conclusion they wish to their. campaign. They want a
permanent solution,. and as they are prevented from achieving that solution
directly, they waste significant resources on. methods which have been
repeatedly shown to be ineffective for such a. purpose.

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