Alex Cockburn, 71, died today. I am saddened. He was a true maverick who wasn’t afraid to take positions that alienated allies and lost him friends and publishing outlets. From the start he saw through Obama. He distrusted centralized power and hated war. He was pro-gun and a skeptic about manmade catastrophic global warming. Alex was not fond of the free market (which he probably thought could not be kept clear of corporatism) but his website, Counterpunch, was open to libertarians (me and Kevin Carson included).
I met Alex once a few years ago and kept in touch with after that. I liked him and admired him. I’m sorry he’s gone.
Too bad. I've been reading Cockburn since the days of his Press Clips column for the Village Voice. He once wrote a classic piece in which the reader had to guess which establishment media cliche was inserted in the blank in each sentence.
ReplyDeleteHere is Cockburn's obit for C. Hitchens
http://www.counterpunch.org/?p=37109
I suppose this lowers the prospects for the elusive radical left - radical libertarian alliance?
ReplyDelete