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One Of The Boys, After All!

By Niranjan Ramakrishnan

12 August, 2012
Countercurrents.org

A fellow Wodehouse fan remembers Alexander Cockburn

I met Alexander Cockburn just once. He was giving a talk a few months before the 2004 American presidential elections. I don't remember very much of what he said, but his manner was striking. He strode the stage from end to end, seeming to talk more to himself than trying to convince his audience of his viewpoint. The impression I retained was of a peripatetic flying hair and popping monocle wild genius with ideas bursting out of his head. Imagine a brilliant Bill the Cat (Bloom County) in whose polemical repertoire "Ack" was a mere millionth part instead of the entirety, and probably meant acknowledgement. I do recall that I didn't agree with practically anything he had to say that day, nor likely did a goodly segment of the rest of the audience. But rare would be the listener who would deny that he was riveting.

No phony, this. My first impressions were bolstered by reading his pieces. He dared to say whatever he pleased, and didn't do so just to impress his listeners or readers. There was a joy about his writing, and a frank and goodhearted glee in the verbal jousting that often followed. Like the cat Webster in the Mulliner story, it seemed evident that Alex, though ferocious in battle, "had no more vice in him than the late John L. Sullivan". (And if Alex were Webster, who might be the cat Percy is left as an exercise to the reader.)

Over time PG Wodehouse would became a common bond between Alex and myself, with references and allusions to situations and characters from his stories lacing many of our e-mail exchanges. In one of my last communications to Alex, I wouldn't resist a well-worn passage from the Wooster corpus. Alex had written something like, "what are we Americans leaving behind for future generations?" The 'we Americans' caught my eye, as Alex himself had only recently taken US citizenship, and I reminded him of Bertie Wooster freely plying the phrase "we journalists" after a lone article in his aunt's privately published magazine. It was unusual that I did not get an answer back by the return post, as it were. I did not know how ill he was.

"Didn't see your column today. Hope all's well.", I wrote to him a few weeks back with a vague premonition. "Yup. Just a little late.", came the reply. When the column appeared the writing had no indication of physical distress or mental weariness. The grasp of factual detail on a variety of topics always continued to astonish me. Not just of politics either. Once when we were in the middle of a discussion of an article I was writing for him, I mentioned in passing the problems afflicting the apple tree in our yard. Alex replied with a long and knowledgeable paragraph on nitrogen, phosphorus, and various other elements related to the welfare of apple trees. It could have been pig-man Angus McAllister offering his ex-cathedra notions on the proper feed for the Empress of Blandings, but Lord Emsworth sharing his sage understanding of "Whiffle On the Care of the Pig" is perhaps the closer canonical parallel.

In a heartfelt tribute to Alexander Cockburn, Justin Raimondo wrote in antiwar.com that we will not see his like again. Alex stood alone because he steered clear of all the tinsel that customarily tugs at the left, distracting it year after year, decade after decade. He kept his eye focused on some essentials: rising economic disparity, vanishing civil liberties, the tyranny of systems, global injustice. As he did so he remained passionate without becoming bitter, famous yet accessible, quirky but full of heart.

Since his passing, praise has poured in from all quarters for Alexander Cockburn and his journalism -- fearless, elegant, unpredictable in its targets but transparent in its conviction. To reach for that veritable mainstay of the Wooster story conclusion which in another context Alex himself once reminded me was the natural epitome of a class-bound society, "Collar it all, Alex. You've earned it."

Niranjan Ramakrishnan is a columnist and writer living on the West Coast. He is the author of Bantaism: the Philosophy of Sardar Jokes. His forthcoming book, ‘On the Other Hand’, is a collection of essays on Mahatma Gandhi’s ideas in the context of current-day issues. He can be reached at [email protected]




 

 


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