Moments in language
Melanie Phillips' latest post on the Spectator weblog is entitled "Another rancid dropping from the British camel corps". The phrase "camel corps" is meant to refer to pro-Arab British journalists. Is this acceptable? What would a parallel description of pro-Israel British journalists be, and can one think of one that wouldn't obviously be racist? I think this is eally quite disgraceful. Admittedly, I've picked it out of context, but the context is a bunch of other posts about defending intelligent design, ridiculing the possibility of global warming and accusing people of having an obsession with Israel.
Is this just unscrupulous nutpicking on my part? I don't think it can reasonably be so called. Melanie Phillips isn't a part-time blogger - her weblog appears on the site of the Spectator magazine, which has thus published the accusations that Sir Max Hastings has an "obsessive animus" against Israel and "a dysfunctional inability" to view Israel rationally. Her blog is listed alongside that of Martin Bright, Clive Davis and Alex Massie, all of whom are apparently happy to see their names alongside her (Alex Massie, in fairness, appears to regularly demur from her stranger outbursts and Davis rarely mentions other bloggers, but Bright, in particular, has described her as "worth reading" in the last two months). Although MMR denialism, intelligent design and the existence of a journalistic "camel corps" are all of them fringe views, Melanie Phillips is not a fringe figure. This is a bit worrying.
Of course, the original use of "camel corps" was to describe the Foreign Office's Arabists. Interestingly, the neo-cons briefly revived this in 2002-2003, at the same time as they took to using the word "Arabist" as an insult.
ReplyDeleteSo the recent history of it is all about abusing people who are more competent that the user. Draw your own conclusions.
What would a parallel description of pro-Israel British journalists be?"Notrim." Or, since everyone has to be an -ist these days, Notrimists.
ReplyDeleteAs for demanding a counter-epithet that wouldn't be obviously racist, I assume you're just taking rhetorical license there, as you clearly believe that the phrase you've singled out is, in fact, obviously racist.
But really, this is more about bashing Bright by association than quibbles over terminology, so disregard the preceding and full steam ahead.
I'd be careful about issuing ironic invitations to come up with insulting but 'non-racist' terms for journos considered too close to Israel - an interwebs crazy magnet!
ReplyDeleteI don't really want to bash Bright by association - although Alex Massie ought to be given credit for regularly calling MP on her bullshit, which inevitably makes Bright look bad by comparison - more to point out that all these people are enabling Melanie Phillips by lending her their credibility. I could have extended the list substantially - there are a lot of people like Oliver Kamm who basically seem know that MP is way off the wall, but don't seem to want to say so.
ReplyDeleteAh, so it's not about bashing Bright by association, it's about bashing lots of people, mostly unnamed (but definitely Bright, and with a quote) by association.
ReplyDeleteOh, and also this guy who disavows association ought to be praised.
That does clear things up, I think.
The original use of the phrase was actually by the Imperial Camel Corps, which fought in the First World War (their memorial is on the north bank of the Thames, near Somerset House). The Foreign Office arabists then adopted it as a nickname.
ReplyDeleteRS: well yes - association with Melanie Phillips is a bad thing, and so some degree of bashing is always implicit in pointing out that people are, in fact, associated with Melanie Phillips. It's just not my primary aim - it's an unintended collateral consequence which is proportionate to my concrete and distinct aim of removing Melanie Phillips from the mainstream of British opinion.
ReplyDeleteI never saw a world of difference between publishing a book called "Londonistan" and publishing one called "Jew York".
ReplyDelete(Not an original observation - A Bartlett, I think.)
Phillips on the MPs' expenses exposure:
ReplyDeleteLike sheep, they all went along with these scams, so that’s supposed to make them all right. ‘It wasn’t my fault, m’lud, that I claimed for a barbecue — it was the system.’ Sounds awfully like ‘I was only obeying orders’ in another era.Wouldn't Eve Garrard call this denying or trivialising the Holocaust?
http://normblog.typepad.com/normblog/2004/11/talking_down_th.html
Sorry, can't do the link, but you know the one.
ReplyDeleteCome to think of it, it sort of is trivialising the Holocaust. But Garrard's principle is still preposterous.
ReplyDeleteMuch as I enjoyed Max Hastings' article, the bigger problem is that it's pretty much a straight rehash of something he wrote in his memoirs, which would be, God, coming up for a decade ago now...
ReplyDeleteI wholeheartedly agree, but isn't it Harry's Place's job to complain about people who are "happy to see their names alongside" some loathsome nutcase? This is written from the other side; it's a reverse-Decent.
ReplyDeleteFair point, but quantity matters - on occasion it can be entirely legitimate to point out that a really bad journalist is detrimental to the credibility of his/her colleagues. The silly thing about Harry's Place is that they massively overuse the technique, and that they do so based on often ridiculously weak links.
ReplyDelete"Camel corps" doesn't sound terrible.
ReplyDelete"Camel corps" doesn't sound terrible.
ReplyDeleteIt certainly does sound terrible as a description of somebody who has been, as he points out, an enthusiastic supporter of Israel for many years.
Incidentally, I recall that La Mel's boilerplate introduction to her articles on the new anti-Semitism when she first started doing them would always include a sentence like "one is entitled to criticise Israel's practices in the West Bank and Gaza Strip - I am horrified by many of them myself". I wonder how she would now characterise anybody who professed themselves "horrified" by Israeli behaviour in the occupied territories.