Harold Pinter (2005) “Art, Truth And Politics“ - Nobel Lecture

This heart-felt and often confrontational speech from Harold Pinter, recorded after he was awarded the 2005 Nobel Prize in Literature, addresses all three of the elements in its title: he discusses (and contrasts) the concept of truth in art and truth in politics. Pinter includes (from 15:22) first hand testimony about the way things really were in Nicaragua at the time of the US Iran-Contra activities, and even offers (then) US President George W Bush a script for a speech (beginning at 41:12) which ends: “I possess moral authority. You see this fist? This is my moral authority. And don’t you forget it.“ Pinter’s speech ends with a reminder to us all of our personal responsibility for re-establishing ’truth’ in our own lives and in public discourse: “I believe that despite the enormous odds which exist, unflinching, unswerving, fierce intellectual determination, as citizens, to define the real truth of our lives and our societies is a crucial obligation which devolves upon us all. It is in fact mandator