Cartoons of the Apocalypse
"Who would have thought a cartoon would have caused Armageddon?"
And here I thought it was going to be Bil Keane.
The beginning quote would make a fine first sentence for one of my many Kilgore Troutian novels and short-stories I toy around with when I grow tired of the pornography, but the sad state of affairs is that this falls under the category of Current Events.
If you have been hiding under a rock for the past week I have provided this link. The hootenanny of hootenannies came today, when the Iranians decided to up the ante to expose the hypocrisy of the Infidel. Like I said to a co-worker today, the only possible punchline to this story is if the winning entry was submitted by a guy named Goldstein.
This is the point in the program where I go on record: I agree with my colleague U in his blog. The hallmark of a free society is the freedom of speech and expression. However, as a free society we do place limits on that freedom to keep the general peace. We impose sanctions against hate speech, we don't allow Deep Throat on network television, we censor out the word "come" during an elderly man's singing during the Super Bowl. Hell, even Howard Stern will likely heel to his new leash especially since he's been given millions in stock options. And we are proud to say that this does not apply to our right to criticize how badly our present Administration is making a muck of things.
The point is that in civil society (the kind that isn't murdering each other over and over and over again) we place self-imposed limits on our freedom of expression. And I am not advocating censorship. Names may never hurt you, but the sticks and stones resulting from those names do. There are mores at work in the global society, boundaries that demand respect. If you cross those boundaries and basically say "I don't give a shit what you believe," then all bets are going to be, as they say, off. You can empirically test this lesson in the limits of freedom of expression for yourself: Go to your local bar. Go up to the meanest-looking mother there, and say to him, "Your Mother sucks horse [expletive]... while taking elephant [expletive] in her juicy [expletive]. And you know what, you dickless [expletive]? She loves every second of it." DISCLAIMER: Neither Cassandra’s Complex nor its subsidiaries assume any liability for the royal shit being beaten out of you.
Post 9/11, Europeans are feeling the heat. Golly, their liberal immigration policies have allowed millions of Muslims inside their borders, and some of them don't want to blend into the culture they have moved to, meaning, they don't want to become White Christians. My Netherlands correspondent is up on some of this. Theirs was a decision between rotting away in some godforsaken camel-turd third world country with no work, or moving to where the money was. In the end, money wins out. You compromise even your most cherished of values when your children are starving, and like all human beings, you worry about the consequences later. The European reaction seems to have been replacing all that silly anti-Semitism that seemed to be in vogue not so long ago with anti-Muslim sentiments.
Notice how many European papers have been quick to reproduce the offending cartoon. At least the Danish PM has taken to pleading the Rodney King.
So, what is this particular freedom of expression, this crude depiction of the Prophet Mohammad wearing a bomb turban, saying exactly? It's saying (1) Us White People have no respect for the Central Figure in your Religion by reproducing an image of Him, (2) He ultimately represents a doctrine of terrorism and violence (which you yourself advocate simply by believing in Him), and (3) what kind of Subhuman Monster do you think you Are, people like you don't deserve to exist! In my book, that qualifies as Hate Speech. Just because some Muslims declare that Israel has no right to exist doesn't make it right for some of us to say the same thing against them.
But now, the cat's out of the bag. The parties who published the cartoon are going to adhere to a bunch of principles to the Letter of the law rather than the Spirit. It seems like the thought going through these peoples' minds was: Hey, let's piss off a bunch of people who have nothing to lose because they're weird and scary and we have to teach them who's wearing the pants around here. What do we have to lose?
The Chinese say it as a curse, and we're living it: "May you live in interesting times."
Peace out.
And here I thought it was going to be Bil Keane.
The beginning quote would make a fine first sentence for one of my many Kilgore Troutian novels and short-stories I toy around with when I grow tired of the pornography, but the sad state of affairs is that this falls under the category of Current Events.
If you have been hiding under a rock for the past week I have provided this link. The hootenanny of hootenannies came today, when the Iranians decided to up the ante to expose the hypocrisy of the Infidel. Like I said to a co-worker today, the only possible punchline to this story is if the winning entry was submitted by a guy named Goldstein.
This is the point in the program where I go on record: I agree with my colleague U in his blog. The hallmark of a free society is the freedom of speech and expression. However, as a free society we do place limits on that freedom to keep the general peace. We impose sanctions against hate speech, we don't allow Deep Throat on network television, we censor out the word "come" during an elderly man's singing during the Super Bowl. Hell, even Howard Stern will likely heel to his new leash especially since he's been given millions in stock options. And we are proud to say that this does not apply to our right to criticize how badly our present Administration is making a muck of things.
The point is that in civil society (the kind that isn't murdering each other over and over and over again) we place self-imposed limits on our freedom of expression. And I am not advocating censorship. Names may never hurt you, but the sticks and stones resulting from those names do. There are mores at work in the global society, boundaries that demand respect. If you cross those boundaries and basically say "I don't give a shit what you believe," then all bets are going to be, as they say, off. You can empirically test this lesson in the limits of freedom of expression for yourself: Go to your local bar. Go up to the meanest-looking mother there, and say to him, "Your Mother sucks horse [expletive]... while taking elephant [expletive] in her juicy [expletive]. And you know what, you dickless [expletive]? She loves every second of it." DISCLAIMER: Neither Cassandra’s Complex nor its subsidiaries assume any liability for the royal shit being beaten out of you.
Post 9/11, Europeans are feeling the heat. Golly, their liberal immigration policies have allowed millions of Muslims inside their borders, and some of them don't want to blend into the culture they have moved to, meaning, they don't want to become White Christians. My Netherlands correspondent is up on some of this. Theirs was a decision between rotting away in some godforsaken camel-turd third world country with no work, or moving to where the money was. In the end, money wins out. You compromise even your most cherished of values when your children are starving, and like all human beings, you worry about the consequences later. The European reaction seems to have been replacing all that silly anti-Semitism that seemed to be in vogue not so long ago with anti-Muslim sentiments.
Notice how many European papers have been quick to reproduce the offending cartoon. At least the Danish PM has taken to pleading the Rodney King.
So, what is this particular freedom of expression, this crude depiction of the Prophet Mohammad wearing a bomb turban, saying exactly? It's saying (1) Us White People have no respect for the Central Figure in your Religion by reproducing an image of Him, (2) He ultimately represents a doctrine of terrorism and violence (which you yourself advocate simply by believing in Him), and (3) what kind of Subhuman Monster do you think you Are, people like you don't deserve to exist! In my book, that qualifies as Hate Speech. Just because some Muslims declare that Israel has no right to exist doesn't make it right for some of us to say the same thing against them.
But now, the cat's out of the bag. The parties who published the cartoon are going to adhere to a bunch of principles to the Letter of the law rather than the Spirit. It seems like the thought going through these peoples' minds was: Hey, let's piss off a bunch of people who have nothing to lose because they're weird and scary and we have to teach them who's wearing the pants around here. What do we have to lose?
The Chinese say it as a curse, and we're living it: "May you live in interesting times."
Peace out.
posted by Doc Paradox at 7:39 PM
1 Comments:
Brilliant. bloody damned brilliant. i take my hat off to you.
i'm stealing the line about the winner being named goldstein...expect i think i'm going to leibowitz instead, as an homage to mr. jon stewart who delivers me, and countless members of my generation the news.
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