Pondering ...

... Freedom and Its Discontents. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

It used to be that governments were the greatest threat to freedom of expression, but now it is social pressure of the kind I have described that threatens debate. I first realised this when I wrote an article about a condition known as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, questioning - I must admit, in less than emollient terms - the firm view of those who suffer from it, namely that it is a viral rather than a psycho-social condition.

What I had not realised at the time I wrote was that the sufferers from chronic fatigue were, in fact, tirelessly active in defence of their view of their condition, and would entertain no other. No sooner was the article published than I began to receive protests by telephone and post, often cast in unpleasant and abusive language; my hospital received calls for my dismissal; even a government minister was contacted.

I discovered when I spoke to other journalists who had written or broadcast in similar vein about the same subject that the treatment I received at the hands of the chronically fatigued was comparatively mild, perhaps because of my obscurity and unimportance. Television journalists in particular were made to suffer, for long receiving calls in the middle of the night, a barrage of insults and so forth, often for month after month, so that their sleep was chronically disturbed. Not surprisingly, they resolved never to touch the subject again ...

Who knew that the chronically fatigued could be so, well, indefatigable?