M.I'5-Persecut ion ` Berna rd Lev in expresses his view s

The article of which part is reproduced. below was penned by Bernard Levin
for the Features section of the Times on 21 September 1991. To my mind,. it
described the situation at the time and in particular. a recent meeting with
a friend, during. which I for the first time admitted to someone other than
my GP that I had been subjected. to a conspiracy of harassment over the
previous year and a. half.
[color=blue]
>There is a madman running loose about London, called. David Campbell; I have
>no reason to believe that he is violent, but he. should certainly be
>approached with caution. You may know him by the curious glitter. in his
>eyes and a persistent. trembling of his hands; if that does not suffice, you
>will find him attempting to thrust no fewer than. 48 books into your arms,
>all hardbacks, with a promise that,. if you should return to the same
>meeting-place. next year, he will heave another 80 at you.
>
>If, by now, the police have arrived and are keeping a close. watch on him,
>you may feel sufficiently emboldened to examine the books. The jackets. are
>a model of uncluttered typography, elegantly and simply. laid out; there is
>an unobtrusive colophon of a rising sun, probably not picked at. random.
>Gaining confidence - the. lunatic is smiling by now, and the policemen, who
>know. about such things, have significantly removed their helmets - you
>could do worse than take the jacket off the first book in the pile.. The
>only word possible to describe the binding. is sumptuous; real cloth in a
>glorious shade of dark green,. with the title and author in black and gold
>on. the spine.
>
>Look at. it more closely; your eyes do not deceive you - it truly does have
>real top-bands. and tail-bands, in yellow, and, for good measure, a silk
>marker ribbon in. a lighter green. The paper is cream-wove and acid-free,
>and. the book is sewn, not glued.
>
>Throughout the encounter, I should have mentioned, our loony has. been
>chattering away, although what he is trying to say is almost. impossible to
>understand; after a time,. however, he becomes sufficiently coherent to make
>clear that he is trying. to sell the books to you. Well, now, such quality
>in bookmaking today can only. be for collectors' limited editions at a
>fearsome price. - #30, #40, #50?
>
>No, no, he says, the glitter. more powerful than ever and the trembling of
>his hands rapidly spreading throughout his entire body; no,. no - the books
>are priced variously at #7, #8 or #9, with the. top price #12.
>
>At this, the policemen understandably put their. helmets back on; one of
>them draws. his truncheon and the other can be heard summoning
>reinforcements. on his walkie-talkie. The madman bursts into tears, and
>swears it. is all true.
>
>And. it is.
>
>David Campbell has acquired the entire rights. to the whole of the
>Everyman's Library, which died a lingering. and shameful death a decade or
>so ago, and he proposes to start it all over again - 48 volumes. this
>September and 80 more next year, in editions I have described,. at the
>prices specified. He proposes to launch. his amazing venture simultaneously
>in. Britain and the United States, with the massive firepower of Random
>Century at his back in this country, and the dashing. cavalry of Knopf
>across the water,. and no one who loves literature and courage will forbear
>to. cheer.[/color]

At the time. this article was written I had believed for some time that
columnists in the Times and other journalists. had been making references to
my situation. Nothing unusual. about this you may think, plenty of people
have the same sort. of ideas and obviously the papers aren't writing about
them, so why should my beliefs. not be as false as those of others?

What makes this. article so extraordinary is that three or four days
immediately preceding its publication, I. had a meeting with a friend,
during the course of which we. discussed the media persecution, and in
particular that by Times columnists. It. seemed to me, reading the article
by Levin in Saturday’s paper, that. he was describing in some detail his
"artist’s impression" of that meeting. Most telling are. the final
sentences, when he writes, "The madman bursts into tears, and swears it. is
all true. And it is.". Although I did not "burst into tears" (he seems to be
using a. bit of poetic licence and exaggerating) I did try hard to convince
my. friend that it was all true; and I am able to concur with Mr Levin,
because, of course, it. is.

At the beginning of the piece Levin reveals a fear of. being attacked by the
"irrational" subject of his story, saying "I have no reason. to believe that
he is violent, but he. should certainly be approached with caution". This
goes back. to the xenophobic propaganda of "defence" against a "threat"
which was seen at the very beginning. of the harassment. The impression of a
"madman running loose". who needs to be controlled through an agency which
assigns to itself the mantle of the "police" is also. one which had been
expressed. elsewhere.

In the final paragraph of this extract,. his reference to Everyman’s Library
as having "died a lingering and. shameful death a decade or so ago" shows
clearly what sort. of conclusion they wish to their campaign. They want a
permanent solution, and as they are prevented from. achieving that solution
directly, they waste significant resources on methods which. have been
repeatedly shown. to be ineffective for such a purpose.

1669

and most of them lately become
so. There are very few houses in the whole town, into which salvation
has not lately come, in one or more instances. There are several
Negroes, who from what was seen in them then, and what is discernible in
them since, appear to have been truly born again in the late remarkable
season.

God has also seemed to have gone out of His usual way, in the quickness
of His work, and the swift progress His Spirit has made in His
operations on the hearts of many. It is wonderful that persons should be
so suddenly and yet so greatly changed. Many have been taken from a
loose and careless way of living, and seized with strong convictions of
their guilt and misery, and in a very little time old things have passed
away, and all things have become new with them.

God's work has also appeared very extraordinary in the degrees of His
influences; in the degrees both of awakening and conviction, and also of
saving light, love, and joy, that many have experienced. It has also
been very extraordinary in the extent of it, and its being so swiftly
propagated from town to town. In former times of the pouring out of the
Spirit of God on this town, though

and telling of the straits and difficulties they were
reduced to by it. She took much notice of it, and it wrought exceedingly
on her compassion. After she had attentively heard him awhile, she went
away to her father, who was in the shop, and entreated him to give that
man a cow: and told him, that the poor man had no cow! that the hunters,
or something else, had killed his cow! and entreated him to give him one
of theirs. Her father told her that they could not spare one. Then she
entreated him to let him and his family come and live at his house: and
had much more talk of the same nature, whereby she manifested bowels of
compassion to the poor.

She has manifested great love to her minister: particularly when I
returned from my long journey for my health, the last fall. When she
heard of it, she appeared very joyful at the news, and told the children
of it, with an elevated voice, as the most joyful tidings; repeating it
over and over. Mr. Edwards is come home! Mr. Edwards is come home! She
still continues very constant in secret prayer, so far as can be
observed, for she seems to have no desire that others should observe her
when she retires, being a child of a reserved temper. Every night,
before she goes to bed, she will say her catechism, and will by no means
miss. She never forgot

only one age of men, and the creation would have
been represented as accomplished at one single time.

657. Types.--The Jewish and Egyptian peoples were plainly foretold by the
two individuals whom Moses met; the Egyptian beating the Jew, Moses avenging
him and killing the Egyptian, and the Jew being ungrateful.

658. The symbols of the Gospel for the state of the sick soul are sick
bodies; but, because one body cannot be sick enough to express it well,
several have been needed. Thus there are the deaf, the dumb, the blind, the
paralytic, the dead Lazarus, the possessed. All this crowd is in the sick
soul.

659. Types.--To show that the Old Testament is only figurative and that the
prophets understood by temporal blessings other blessings, this is the
proof:

First, that this would be unworthy of God.

Secondly, that their discourses express very clearly the promise of temporal
blessings, and that they say nevertheless that their discourses are obscure,
and that their meaning will not be understood. Whence it appears that this
secret meaning was not that which they openly expressed, and that
consequently they meant to speak of other sacrifices, of another deliverer,
etc. They say that they will be understood only in the fullness of time
(Jer. 30:24).

The third proof is that their discourses are contradictory, and neutralise
each other; so that, if we think that they did not mean by the words law and
sacrifice anything else than