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From International Socialism (1st series), No.29, Summer 1967, p.35.
Thanks to Ted Crawford & the late Will Fancy.
Marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for ETOL.
MacBird!
Barbara Garson
Penguin, 4s 6d
In established terms MacBird! has often been treated as a scant piece of line picking and-if regular political sniping. Maybe it is a sort of guerilla warfare and its weaponry to be effective is best not too sophisticated. And so MacBird! scores as a raid.
The main point can get lost. This is a common fate for the work of the ardent – cf. the Spies for Peace document – where an idea is put across counter to customary thought. MacBird! hardly concentrates on a caricature of Johnson nor on the insinuation of his complicity in the Kennedy assassination.
The attack is much fuller and is against liberal image-makery and conventions in national politics, in particular against the appearances of the nice guys with style who would have us ‘accept (their) words, ignore (our) intuitions.’
Ken O’Dunc has been shot, MacBird conveniently drops dead and at the end Robert’s path looks clear. He has really nothing new to do but raise the banners of the dead and pledge himself to follow his ‘predecessor’s path in hewing out the Smooth Society.’ It is nice to see a land mine planted in that path, to hope more will come, and that they will be eye-openers for those whose ‘very lack of thoughts must cloak our kings.’
MacBird! is good fun to read and its totally irreverent appreciation of The Establishment is something to admire.
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Last updated on 5 May 2010