The death of John Pilger, as the calendar flicked over from the ugly year 2023 to its apprehensively awaited successor, is a blow that lovers of the truth will keenly feel.
A powerful voice for humanity, reason, kindness, truth and decency has gone into the silence.
There are others left behind, but none quite like Pilger. Incorruptible, fearless, eloquent and tireless: a perfect journalistic combination of ruthless tenacity and deep, eloquent compassion.
Thank goodness for his towering legacy. I hope his family, or somebody else, maintains his website – mirrored and protected – for the benefit of people who are interested in the truth that lies beyond the pervasive lying propaganda that assails us on all sides.
We have seen a muted, almost grudging array of obituaries from much of the mainstream media of the world, most of them barely scratching the surface of Pilger’s immense contribution to journalism over the busy decades of his long and eventful life. I’m not surprised by that. Pilger got his start in the mainstream but because of his integrity and uncompromising devotion to truth he soon outgrew it and stood like a giant outside it, casting his big shadow over its tamed and occupied territories.
Indeed, Pilger inspired much dislike among tame mainstream journalists and commentators simply because his work so plainly exposed their own efforts for what they are. While most of the mainstream voices crowd like toadies around the media platforms – old and new – that owe their existence to money and power, Pilger offered the “red pill” to unplug from the matrix and see the emperor unclad, in all its violent wickedness.
The red pill
To read a few of Pilger’s books is to see the world in a new light. Once seen, this truth cannot be unseen. Dots connect, the mealy-mouthed nonsense of politicians makes sense in a new and disturbing context and the pronouncements of media commentators that once seemed so persuasive and reasoned appear in their true light as paid propaganda in the service of bankers, warmongers and their unlovely ilk.
A great Australian, Pilger followed in the footsteps of earlier crusading journalist Wilfred Burchett, who was the first to expose the lies of the United States over the real impact of the nuclear detonation at Hiroshima in 1945. Like Burchett in that case, Pilger in his work relentlessly peeled aside the lies of the powerful to reveal the ugly truths they tried to conceal.
Small wonder Pilger campaigned so strongly for Julian Assange, still in jail in England and awaiting extradition to the United States to stand trial in a military kangaroo court, charged – in effect – with the crime of honest journalism.
As a primer for background about why the world is as it is, and how the powerful lie to cover the real reasons for the great events that cast their shadows over our lives, Pilger’s work is practically indispensable. To understand the entrenched racism that most white Australians simply can’t see, read A Secret Country. Then move onto Heroes, Hidden Agendas, Distant Voices and The New Rulers of the World. If you want his take on Palestine try Freedom Next Time or watch his documentary, Palestine is still the issue.
The world as it is
Pilger’s immense back-catalogue of articles and films form a treasure trove of exposes that unveil the modus operandi of wickedness allied to power and provide readers and viewers with tools to interpret present and future events, free from the mind-numbing propaganda of the mainstream.
Always a champion of the underdog, the disenfranchised, the forgotten people the system seeks to erase, Pilger sought out those people and amplified their stories, embarrassing and shaming the rich and powerful and their puppets who are so comfortable with injustice.
Once, long ago, I was alerted to John Pilger’s existence when I read a scathing piece against him in a Murdoch newspaper (of course). The writer used the term “Pilgerisation” in a bid to undermine the superior reportage and analysis of its target. It only served to make me curious, and soon helped me to recognise the unethical tawdriness of the Murdoch-media world-view.
The very worst I could ever say about any of John Pilger’s writing is that his tone is sometimes self-righteous and that he might have been a little naïve in his assessment of the forces that drive other global players than those that dominate the West. These are small misdemeanours indeed, even if my judgement is correct. His critics in the mainstream will magnify any small failing to divert attention from the rock-solid facts that support his work. Just as Burchett was slandered and discredited and just as Assange’s character has been endlessly smeared, so John Pilger will never be keenly applauded in the mainstream.
That’s a badge of honour that I believe Pilger wore proudly. Pilger’s work stands on its own merit.
In his final years perhaps his greatest efforts were put into trying to counteract the warmongering propaganda so visibly preparing the way for a war by the West against China. His warnings are vitally important and need to be heard above the pro-war rantings of the bought-and-paid-for brigades.
The world is much the poorer for the passing of John Pilger.
A good obituary of John Pilger can be found here:
Thank you. I have been waiting to see a sheaf of fulsome tributaries to John Pilger, and agree with you, they have been fewer than I expected. I felt sad when I heard he had died. Like a beacon has been dimmed.