[lbo-talk] Alex Cockburn going the Hitchens way?

Carrol Cox cbcox at ilstu.edu
Tue Jun 20 06:26:28 PDT 2006


Critics of Cockburn on this point share at least one error with conspiracy theorists: they are innocent of the role of information overload in politics.

There is too damn much information in the world, and useful knowledge gets buried. And the worst clutter of all, the information most powerful in burying knowledge, is information on bad people in government. Every moment spent focusing on some real or imaginary crime by particular individuals simply adds to the clutter. Both a focus on My Lai _and_ conspiricism re the Kennedy assassination contribute to hiding the huge crime the u.s. committed in Viet Nam. Leftists need to focus on creating knowledge of that crime, not information about particular villains (real or imaginary).

Carrol



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