Monday, Newcastle:
I was going to speak Gilad Atzmon About his amazing new book In timeA few hours before the show, the venue, The Clooney, cancelled our booking. We went to inform the crowd of the change of venue and to ask the proprietors of The Clooney, a music venue Gilad had frequented for many years, why they felt they had to bar us. Their response was harsh. Harsh and bizarre. Bizarre was the problem. We were treated subhuman. Literally worse than a Whippet allowed into a venue we were barred from. When we asked “Why?” the manager and owner of the venue didn't answer. We didn't deserve a response. We were stinking up their nostrils, or at least that's what they were forced to think.
In time for Amazon Books.
What on earth happened? Several people were spreading lies about Gilad and his beliefs. They were using some New Left buzzwords. My guess would be: anti-Semite, Holocaust denier, racist, hate speaker. What I wonder is, why does it work? Not only are none of the accusations true, but how can anyone treat someone so badly based solely on third-party hearsay? Gilad produced a short video about the Cluny affair called “Cluny or Ignorance”.
Those who criticize us have clearly not read the work of Gilad Atzmon, nor do they have any real knowledge of the area that was until recently central to his work: Jewish identity politics, the subject of his previous book.Wanderer?' What really surprised me was that there was no attempt to verify the veracity of the allegations. They had no interest in what we had to say. Our words were received as if they were uttered in a foreign language, and in a way they were, because we were talking about logic, peace, understanding and ideas. None of this made sense to the people who were instructed to launch the investigation. 2 Minutes of Hatred.
We moved to another venue “Being in time”A full recording of this discussion will be completed soon. There was some great music as well. I tweeted a short excerpt here.
A memorable evening ends with Round Midnight
thank you Gilad Atzmon #Monk pic.twitter.com/nYxaUaa7qk
— David Scott (@Albion_Rover) May 29, 2017
Tuesday, Edinburgh:
We met outside the Lighthouse Bookstore, which had also banned us twice. They Blog It seemed an odd choice for a bookseller that claims to support the free discussion of ideas while encouraging everyone to join the violent Antifa movement — but by ideas, of course, I mean accepted ideas in these dystopian times.
As we were walking towards the alternative venue, some of the people who had been following us suddenly attacked Mr Gilad. After a brief struggle, they fled, unsuccessfully trying to take away our equipment and books, and fortunately no one was seriously harmed by them. But it was a violent attack on the streets of Edinburgh against a peaceful man who simply wanted to take part in intellectual public debate. Think about that for a moment. The home of the Enlightenment, the Edinburgh Review, prominent philosophers and thinkers, the city known as the Athens of the North, now has anti-intellectual thugs on its streets.
Gilad's thoughts on the incident are recorded here.
We then carried on the discussion in a room filled with the most diverse human beings imaginable. There were UK columnists fighting official repression as civil servants, jazz fans, revolutionary socialists, lesbians, musicians and all sorts of people. If this was a bunch of “Nazi scum”, then the words no longer had meaning. But of course this is a struggle to maintain meaning in language and in life, as postmodernism gathers momentum and convinces us that there is no meaning anywhere.
From a personal perspective, I learned a lot from the two days of discussion.“Being in time” I agree with the author because he asks questions (the very definition of an intellectual), is open to ideas, and his work is thought-provoking. Where I disagree with Gilad's analysis, listening to it has helped me improve, as the challenges he poses have caused me to examine my own ideas and beliefs more rigorously. What more could you ask for from a public intellectual?
So, dear reader, I would like to end by encouraging you to buy Gilad Atzmon's books or listen to his music. Do whatever you want, but support Atzmon, because if he is silenced, you will be next.
