No Laughing Matter
link The power of the pen: Cartoonists worldwide react to the Charlie Hebdo attack | euronews, world news.
Predictably, this most recent terror attack has drawn sympathy from all quarters condemning the brutality and assault on free speech in a civilized society. As is the pattern, crowds of people worldwide hold empathetic vigils in support of the victims and to protest the muzzling of free expression.
It’s all well meaning, but…to what good? Of course people abhor senseless violence. Of course people want freedom of speech and expression; at least in the western world. It’s highly doubtful that the perpetrators and backers of the heinous deeds are going to be swayed by crowds of people carrying candles and signs. In the aftermath of the deaths of the Charlie Hebdo satirists, cartoonists worldwide have taken to pen poignant and moving tributes to the courage of their fallen brethren. Interestingly, very few publications have taken to publish the very cartoons which allegedly caused the deaths of the Charlie Hebdo editors.
The irony is stark. Claims of cartoonists and journalists to not be silenced by these attacks are met with almost complete absence of what the offending cartoons were. If news outlets were truly outraged and defiant, we’d see the offending cartoons on the front page of papers worldwide. The exception is the Dutch publication Berlingske, which has republished the offending images. But what about the big papers of the ‘free world’?
The reality is, the propaganda war is won…and not by the good guys. In the 21st century, with all that civilization has accomplished, with all that is known, people are still being held hostage by radical exponents of third century beliefs. From eyeglasses to airplanes; agriculture to spaceflight; medicines to engineering; all have progressed with the movement of civilization. But, some think that women should still be covered from head to toe, have no education and be subservient chattel. That men should be devoutly obessiant to arbitrary rules that applied when people chased animals around with sticks.
But that’s not even the insane part. The insane part is that the prevailing wisdom espoused by ‘leaders’ is that society at large should not inflame the sensibilities of such nutters. It’s not an outrageous leap of logic to expect that the scope of offensive images will include pictures of people eating a pork slider, of people laughing or even a Sears catalogue.
This has nothing to do with religious sensibilities. It has everything to do with criminals bent on gaining control on their terms. Appeasing makes as much sense as reasoning with a rabid skunk. Groups that insist that people be dragged back into the dark ages of human existence deserve no special consideration or voice by modern society. Nor should those that apologize for them.