Sorry for the hiatus. I am suffering one of my periodic periods of self-doubt and depression. This was caused in part by my being very disappointed at the number of people who listened to my talk at Occupy London, and subsequently by my inability to get anyone mainstream to publish a major piece I have been working on. That has never happened to me before.
A little niche on the web helps you forget how insignificant you are; try to step outside that niche and you are brutally reminded.
First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win
Craig don’t be disheartened. There are many of us out here eagerly awaiting your insightful thoughts on contemporary events. Please keep them coming!
Simonp is absolutely correct-chin up craig-have just finished the catholic orangemen book-please accept a heartfelt thanks for your continuing efforts and integrity
Chin-up Craig. A great fan of your insightful blog, do keep up the excellent work.
Craig,
I would have been there – had I not been so far away and at work. You have a positive effect on so many people influencing, informing and educating to say the least – I wish you the best in feeling better sooner – for what its worth I’m a big fan of the blog and feel at times that the comments section develops into an online working group of real-time investigative journalism and ideas development which is really exciting – I look forward to hearing the speech on youtube – hopefully,
I suggest trying another one, and another and another : )
The cause is significant. Your significance derives from your part in the advancing of the cause. Keep it up; the cause is immortal
¡Hasta la victoria siempre!
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Really it’s no surprise if a talk to a bunch of tent-dwellers, presumably without much advance publicity, doesn’t get much of an audience. And as for the media turning you down, they probably have a quota – if too many C Murray pieces are published you might attract attention.
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(Of course you have other significance as husband, father etc – more than most of us saddoes).
Speaking as a depressive myself, it’s at least partly the weather.
Now get on with the Fox-Werritty piece you were threatening, please. Fascinated minds want to know.
🙂
Chin up. Don’t let the bastards win.
Are we all insignificant whilst nobody is listening? No, time is not wasted by writing and speaking. True to ourselves is what matters. What is published here on your own website and elsewhere is available for all to see and is a part of the greater mass of information and thought that WILL help to ensure that a range of ideas are in circulation. We can never be certain how and what any future changes will be.
Shouting the loudest only results in dictators. Proper thought, quietly working away behind the scenes, ensures diversity.
Do not crave recognition, accept that you do play a part and that part will vary with the times.
or, to be concise:
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¡Hasta Siempre, Comandante!
You are one of the most insightful and knowledgeable commentators on the current scene. You are doing a very valuable job, providing information lacking in the media. Of course, you are anti-establishment and known to be, so you must expect rough treatment from the establishment.
Please, don’t doubt yourself. We believe in you!
Craig, cheer up. you can’t imagine how many people listen to you and follow your writing. You are a star and a very brave one …
I can guess how lonely your furrow can be to plough, but I thought you were ahead of the curve on the Fox-Werritty scandal. Informed comment on such matters isn’t easy to come by, so I’m grateful.
Slight amendment:
‘First they ridicule you, then they ignore you, then they fight you, then you win.’
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Don’t be disheartened, Craig. You know how many hits this blog gets. Your writing travels.
(I don’t know if you take exercise as a matter of course, but my biggest weapon in fighting depression was walking the feet off myself.)
I guess many mainstream people are at least as much depressed as you but cannot admit this to anybody in order to keep their public “image”. Being completely alone with their depression, they suffer worse and live more dangerously.
Craig Murray I think you are brilliant,
Nuid’s right. So also is the Zen remedy for depression:
“Have a spring clean. Have a huge spring clean”
(to be taken absolutely literally; no spiritual content whatever)
Craig,
you’ve got quite a following already. I really wouldn’t have expected any substantial support at #occupylsx – only bigoted dogmatism delivered in a utopian populist package is ever going to get ears there. You’re not on the same page on a number of issues as those folks so you’ll be cast out by the orthodox comrades anyway. One speaker on Saturday was proclaiming that it had a “wide” range of political viewpoints represented, which were, and I quote: “marxists, anti-capitalists and trade unionists”. Yes – what a broad base of support!
I’ve been reading your work for years now Craig and whether you realise it or not, your natural home is libertarianism. You, to my mind, fall clearly within the left libertarian camp. If you want a more responsive audience that’s where you should be aiming. The people you’re seeking to court at the moment only ever speak with a corpse in their mouth.
Craig – isn’t self doubt a good think ? Doug
Craig,
Unfortunatly most people dont care and the powerful few make the decisions. Your job is to sow and nurish seeds. You are most relevant. People I know quote you as the one sane voice we need . Your positives outweigh the negatives. We need both.
Your response to your feeling is what matters. Real humility is healthy, false pride is not . You cannot control things but you can learn to let them pass by and dont focus on them. You know that soon you will feel great again. Lets go.
Craig, Head up and take heart – I and many others have learned and come to understand much from your writings. We need you but must also be thoughtful of you and we are.
Follow the advice of the walking – it helped me also some years ago.
Don’t worry Craig.
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It just takes one soul to create a stink.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIbeskmBy-4&feature=player_embedded
Craig
I agree entirely with all that Kit Green wrote above. I’d add that you already have more influence than 99.9% of people in the world today. What matters is that you are using that influence to speak up for some of those with least influence of all. Keep doing that!
There was only a few of us a the beginning of the talk but by half way through there was more and more people there. It is was only a small tent anyway. Plus the talk wasn’t published on the occupylsx website; well, I couldn’t see it anyway. It was an informative talk and I enjoyed it.
Quick question; what was the reason you gave at the talk about being affiliated with the far-left being disconcerting for you?
SAY not the struggle naught availeth,
The labour and the wounds are vain,
The enemy faints not, nor faileth,
And as things have been they remain.
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If hopes were dupes, fears may be liars;
It may be, in yon smoke conceal’d,
Your comrades chase e’en now the fliers,
And, but for you, possess the field.
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For while the tired waves, vainly breaking,
Seem here no painful inch to gain,
Far back, through creeks and inlets making,
Comes silent, flooding in, the main.
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And not by eastern windows only,
When daylight comes, comes in the light;
In front the sun climbs slow, how slowly!
But westward, look, the land is bright!
You should consider options of becoming a muslim. You will find peace in your soul. Find the truth of your life and purpose of why you were brought to this life.
meanwhile,
Is reverting to Islam is dangerous in this country?
Milly Dowler killer becomes a muslim and changes his name to Muhammad.
However, he is being attacked by media scaremongers. i am sure now he will never get a parole.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2011/11/07/milly-dowler-killer-levi-bellfield-changes-name-to-mohammed-and-converts-to-islam-115875-23543212/
Craig
I agree with Simonp. Also, you know from experience that Downs are followed by Ups. [OK, and vice-versa – but c’est La Condition Humaine.]
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Having been at your Tent City University talk, I think it unrealistic to expect a large turnout. After all, the tent could hardly have held a dozen more than the 30 that were present by the end of your talk. The way Occupy London operates relies much more on word of mouth and the internet than on large audiences, even if an overhead view of the tents evokes the image of a crowd – a sort of secular and submissive St Paul’s congregation hanging on the preacher’s words (or nodding off). You should regard your role as that of the frogman, in the wonderful image from William Plomer’s “Bamboo: A Ballad for Two Voices” – for full text scroll down to pages 8 & 9 of http://tinyurl.com/d97c4b8 – but best heard on the record, read by C Day Lewis and Jill Balcon:
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“…the frogman in your bloodstream you never can evade…”
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Your postings here and your more traditional talks mean that you are already swimming along the political bloodstream and immunising it against official, party political, commercial and journalistic lies, evasions and cowardice.
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Remember, too, the tiny audiences at your (and other candidates)public meetings in Blackburn and Norwich. And, indeed, how traditional political systems are stacked against independent voices: in both campaigns your getting over 2,000 votes in the face of the BBC’s canoodling with the main parties was as much success as the UK system could tolerate. Decrepit systems resist change – “Neither do men put new wine into old bottles”. You’ve already seen from those visiting this site – and the comments on it – that you have a substantial audience.
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That said, the instinctive closed shop operated by the mainstream UK media suggests that you and others like you need to find other ways into the bloodstreams of ideas and action. What about church dialogues? [Think the Putney Debates of 1647] Or pamphlets distributed by volunteers on public transport. I have some experience in London [of publicising World Book Day in 2006] and could organize a team of volunteers on an appropriate date. For instance, 2 December provides a nice link with “Murder in Samarkand” as it is the tenth anniversary of Enron filing for bankruptcy. I bet others have plenty of ideas for injecting rejuvenation into hardened arteries.
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You’re in good company. Did you hear Saturday’s Archive on 4 programme on Robert Maxwell, including his removing John Pilger from the pages of the Daily Mirror?
Mr Murray,
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I totally agree with the opinion provided by Katabasis.
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Those who are in Occupy London gang are not in the same boat as you are. You might think that you are on the left but left can be the same damaging as right. The only truth is when people are allowed to benefit from their freedom of choice in every aspect of their life and by benefiting they eventually benefit society. All these left ideas that are popular among Occupy gang are actually utopian and in my opinion are even more dangerous as those which are currently in practise.
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You blog provides much needed information and topics that you raise in discussion are important in order to understand that many issues are not being presented in truthful way. Keep in up.
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On the other hand it is quite saddens me that desire of more justice in the system of income distribution and desire of farer social policy that has driven recent protests is being hijacked by extreme leftist whose desire is to promote anarchy and utopianism.
Yesterday Spike Milligan’s daughters read his serious poems on Radio 4. Spike was full of self-doubt and had depressive moods too. While it was hard for his daughters when he was down they well recognised his amazing talent.
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Likewise, Craig, you should never doubt your talent. Anybody who can put meaningful prose together in such well-constructed paragraphs that is readable as well as politically appropriate has no reason for self-recrimination.