I was approximately 16 years old when I discovered I.F. Stone’s writing by way of his independent newspaper which lay askew on a table in the college library. Outside everything was going to hell as the Kent State shootings and the secret war on Cambodia had unleashed a wave of student dissatisfaction.
What I loved about Stone was his certainty that all governments are in the business of lying. This seemed like an unassailable truth—and yet for Stone, the assertion wasn’t the keystone of pessimism. He saw opportunity—just dig and you’ve got a story.
Nowadays I think of “Izzy” Stone quite often. He was in effect our nation’s first blogger. His life and work were devoted to uncovering the truth that was (and is) always the first casualty of political rhetoric.
If he was with us today he’s be taking on the awful lie that’s called “post-racial America” and he’d be decrying the ubiquitous and unpatriotic jargon of neoliberalism which insists we don’t need a middle class anymore.
I love the following video of Stone from the MacNeil/Lehrer Newshour in which he talks about the trial of Socrates—which he’d written about with uncommon passion and intelligence.
Enjoy:
http://www.ifstone.org/macneil.php
Planet of the Blind 