![[FSF
Associate Member]](http://www.modspil.dk/images/fsfMembergetButton.png){kind=small}
Salman Rushdies skam: Forfattere og forretningsmænd
Salman Rushdie blev forleden gjort til ridder og er hermed blevet "Sir Salman" og medlem af Overhuset - som eksempel på den form for belønning, der venter en intelligent og talentfuld forfatter, der er villig til at falde til patten, som Priyamvada Gopal skriver i The Guardian: A reward for abandoning the anti-establishment stance he once espoused.
Præsenteret med chancen for at bekende kulør, for at vise, at han stadig har vid og bid og ikke spiser af hånden, vælger den store forfatter naturligvis at afslå ...
... at tage imod den og udtrykke sin "ydmyge taknemmelighed".
Intellektuel hæderlighed? Mod til at sige fra over for en regering, hvis store bidrag til England har været fattiggørelse, politistat, nedskæringer og kommercialisering, og hvis bidrag til verden har været ukritisk støtte til krige bygget på løgn og tortur? Mod til at vise sin foragt og gøre klart, at "hædersbevisninger" fra den kant ikke er mere værd end støv og aske?
Nej, det skal man åbenbart ikke vente fra en forfatter i disse for verden så alvorlige.
Som en ejendommelig kontrast forklarer den rimeligt apolitiske forretningsmand Joseph Corre i The Independent, hvordan han reagerede på at få tildelt en MBE:
My reason for turning down the MBE can be summed up in two words: Tony Blair. In 1997, I voted for Mr Blair. It was a time of hope and I was hopeful that he would be a good prime minister. To a degree, his party did good things in office. I agreed with the minimum wage, and I have admired his tax regime, which created an environment in which my business could thrive.Rushdie har i hvert fald ikke tid til at forklare nogen, hvad ære eller integritet er - han har alt for travlt med at tage mod priser på denne verdens bonede gulve. Forfatteren har solgt sin sjæl, og kun forrentingsmanden giver sig tid til at spørge sin samvittighed først.
However, I believe that the way and the methods with which Tony Blair took Britain to war in Iraq and Afghanistan alongside George Bush were dishonest. They were based on a lie. We did not enter these conflicts for moral reasons; we entered them for economic ones. That much has now become clear.
I would have admired Tony Blair, or at least respected him, if he'd have told me that we were going to war because he thought it would be good for our economy, regardless of the human cost. I would have respected that honesty, even if I strongly disagreed with him. But instead, Mr Blair dreamt up this thing called spin, which is effectively organised lying, to convince the British public that his reasons were just.
The result has been that hundreds of thousands of people have now suffered intolerably. They have suffered death and torture, and they now live in hopeless situations as a direct result of Tony Blair's invasion. What is going on daily in Iraq is a tragedy. I have seen the death and the sheer human misery. I have seen pictures of whole families being blown to pieces. It is the greatest scandal of our time.
Someone has to be held responsible for that. Someone has to stand up and hold up their hand and say sorry for the lies, and sorry for that dodgy dossier. Instead, we have had silence. The UK has become a more dangerous place, and a bigger target for terrorists. Whole communities have been alienated and still nobody from Tony Blair's government has said sorry.
What happened to the old-fashioned concept of honour?
Sic transit gloria mundi. Måske det bare er mig, men man kunne dog have bevaret en eller anden form for illusion om, at man burde kunne forvente mere af forfatteren til "De Sataniske Vers" og "Midnatsbørn".