M'I.5'Persecu tion , Be rnard Lev in expres ses h is views
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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.
>There is a madman running loose about London, called David. Campbell; I have
>no reason to believe that he is. violent, but he should certainly be
>approached with caution. You may know him by the curious glitter in. his
>eyes and a persistent trembling of his hands; if that does not suffice,. you
>will find him attempting. to thrust no fewer than 48 books into your arms,
>all hardbacks, with. a promise that, if you should return to the same
>meeting-place next. year, he will heave another 80 at you.
>
>If, by now, the police have arrived and are keeping a close watch. on him,
>you. may feel sufficiently emboldened to examine the books. The jackets are
>a. model of uncluttered typography, elegantly and simply laid out; there is
>an unobtrusive colophon of a. rising sun, probably not picked at random.
>Gaining confidence - the lunatic is smiling by now,. and the policemen, who
>know about such things,. have significantly removed their helmets - you
>could do worse than take. the jacket off the first book in the pile. The
>only word possible to. describe the binding is sumptuous; real cloth in a
>glorious shade of dark green, with. the title and author in black and gold
>on the. spine.
>
>Look at it more closely; your eyes do not deceive you -. it truly does have
>real top-bands and tail-bands, in yellow, and, for good measure, a. silk
>marker ribbon. in a lighter green. The paper is cream-wove and acid-free,
>and the. book is sewn, not glued.
>
>Throughout the encounter, I should have mentioned,. our loony has been
>chattering away, although what. he is trying to say is almost impossible to
>understand; after a time, however, he becomes. sufficiently coherent to make
>clear that he is trying to sell the books to you. Well, now, such. quality
>in bookmaking today can only be for collectors' limited. editions at a
>fearsome. price - #30, #40, #50?
>
>No, no, he. says, the glitter more powerful than ever and the trembling of
>his hands rapidly spreading throughout his entire body; no, no. - the books
>are priced variously at #7, #8 or #9, with the top. price #12.
>
>At this, the. policemen understandably put their helmets back on; one of
>them. draws his truncheon and the other can be heard summoning
>reinforcements on his walkie-talkie.. The madman bursts into tears, and
>swears it is. all true.
>
>And it. is.
>
>David Campbell has acquired the entire rights to the. whole of the
>Everyman's Library,. which died a lingering and shameful death a decade or
>so ago, and he proposes. to start it all over again - 48 volumes this
>September and 80 more. next year, in editions I have described, at the
>prices. specified. He proposes to launch his amazing venture simultaneously
>in. Britain and the United States, with the massive firepower of Random
>Century at his. back in this country, and the dashing cavalry of Knopf
>across the water, and no one who loves literature and courage will. forbear
>to. cheer.
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.
5910
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itself the centre of everything; it is inconvenient to others since it would
enslave them; for each Self is the enemy, and would like to be the tyrant of
all others. You take away its inconvenience, but not its injustice, and so
you do not render it lovable to those who hate injustice; you render it
lovable only to the unjust, who do not any longer find in it an enemy. And
thus you remain unjust and can please only the unjust.
456. It is a perverted judgement that makes every one place himself above
the rest of the world, and prefer his own good, and the continuance of his
own good fortune and life, to that of the rest of the world!
457. Each one is all in all to himself; for he being dead, all is dead to
him. Hence it comes that each believes himself to be all in all to
everybody. We must not judge of nature by ourselves, but by it.
458. "All that is in the world is the lust of the flesh, or the lust of the
eyes, or the pride of life; libido sentiendi, libido sciendi, libido
dominandi."[73] Wretched is the cursed land which these three rivers of fire
enflame rather than water! Happy they who, on these rivers, are not
overwhelmed nor carried away, but are immovably fixed, not standing but
seated on a low and secure base, whence they do not rise before the light,
but, having rested in peace, stretch out their hands to Him, who must lift
them up, and make them stand upright and firm in the porches of the holy
Jerusalem! There pride can no longer assail them nor cast