We were told that Iraq had a relationship with Al Qaeda and shared responsibility for the atrocity in New York of September 11, 2001. He continued: “As every single person here knows, the justification for the invasion of Iraq was that Saddam Hussein possessed a highly dangerous body of weapons of mass destruction, some of which could be fired in 45 minutes, bringing about appalling devastation. What surrounds us therefore is a vast tapestry of lies, upon which we feed.” To maintain that power it is essential that people remain in ignorance, that they live in ignorance of the truth, even the truth of their own lives. He said: “Political language, as used by politicians, does not venture into any of this territory since the majority of politicians, on the evidence available to us, are interested not in truth but in power and the maintenance of that power. This theme of the responsibility to seek and present the truth was the connecting link between his remarks on drama and his remarks on history and politics. It has to be faced, right there, on the spot.” It cannot be adjourned, it cannot be postponed. “But as I have said, the search for the truth can never stop. Pinter proceeded to give some insight into the complex and elusive process by which he composed his dramas, making clear that his primary concern was the utilization of language, plot and character to discover important human and social truths.Ĭoncerning the relationship between art, language and truth he said: “So language in art remains a highly ambiguous transaction, a quicksand, a trampoline, a frozen pool which might give way under you, the author, at any time. As a citizen I must ask: What is true? What is false?” So as a writer I stand by them but as a citizen I cannot. “I believe that these assertions still make sense and do still apply to the exploration of reality through art. A thing is not necessarily either true or false it can be both true and false.’ “In 1958 I wrote the following: ‘There are no hard distinctions between what is real and what is unreal, nor between what is true and what is false. Pinter prefaced a discussion of his body of dramatic work and his approach to art with the following observation: Even sections of the establishment press in both Britain and the United States, such as the Guardian and the New York Times,which have fully participated in the dissemination of lies and the coverup of crimes associated with US foreign policy, were obliged to register in some measure the powerful impact of Pinter’s words. Pinter’s address, entitled “Art, Truth and Politics,” was refreshing and even liberating in its honesty and bluntness about the catastrophic impact of US subversion, violence and aggression over many decades and in many parts of the world. His voice was hoarse, but, according to published accounts, no less commanding for that. He appeared on tape sitting in a wheelchair, with a rug over his knees. On the advice of his physicians, he refrained from making the trip to Sweden. Pinter was recently treated for cancer of the esophagus and remains in fragile health. The 75-year-old playwright, screenwriter, poet, actor and antiwar activist gave his address in the form of a videotape, made in Britain and shown on screens to the assemblage in Stockholm. Mincing no words, Pinter called Bush and Blair war criminals, and made an impassioned call for mass political resistance to militarism and war. He utilized his acceptance speech to extend and develop that struggle, giving a blistering critique of the entire course of US foreign policy in the period since World War II, and indicting Britain for its role as Washington’s junior partner and accomplice. The renowned author of such plays as The Homecoming and The Caretaker, Pinter has spoken out tirelessly and powerfully against the war in Iraq and the depredations of American imperialism in the Balkans, Central America and elsewhere that preceded it. British playwright Harold Pinter, this year’s Nobel laureate for literature, delivered a passionate, truthful and courageous acceptance speech to the Swedish Academy on Wednesday.
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