Mama says it’s really hard to discern the differences between satiric free expression and calculated hate incitement through writing or cartooning or public speech. Papa says that if you are in a theatre in the USA and you call, “FIRE”, just for fun, say or to disrupt the gathering, you can be arrested because it’s against the law and could endanger many lives if everyone panics.
Graffitti with., say, nazi symbols, and jeering statements against any race or religion are looked upon with disgust by many and some are actually against the law. You can defame a temple or a church or a mosque without being punished by the law. So it is very difficult to ascertain how to deal with the ridicule of Mohammed or Christ or God or any religious diety or leader through cartoons, and yet…and yet…freedom to make the cartoons is indisputable. Especially in France where freedom of speech and action are sacrosanct.
“In her biography on Voltaire, Evelyn Hall wrote the phrase: “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it” (which is often misattributed to Voltaire himself) as an illustration of Voltaire’s beliefs. Hall’s quotation is often cited to describe the principle of freedom of speech.” (From Wikepedia)
But I am deeply troubled by all of this. There are so many arguments for free expression, espcially freedom of thought. You can think anything, mama says, but you may not act upon all of those thoughts without discrimination between what may or may not be harmful.
All of us here believe in Charlie Hebdo’s right to say and draw and publish anything it wishes. God knows we use the lord’s name in vain. If you are not a believer, it seems as normal as cake. But if you are a devout Christian or Muslim or Jew or anything else, you may not feel comfortable at all with being satirized in any way. Still, one accepts it, uncomfortably, without murdering the artist or writer as an infidel. Did Muhammed actually teach the killing, the murdering of infidels? Certainly one can find violence verses in the Quran. But one can also find violence verses in the Bible. I’m going to look into this along with research on The Inquistion and The Crusades, both of which advocated murder of those who did not believe in the same way. And so we are really concerned here with interpretation, which can be very dangerous in the wrong hands.
And now we are back to mama’s argument that so many religions preach kindness and love and acceptance, but will not tolerate anyone who disagrees with their tenets.
A terrible action, these killings. Ignorance. Brainwashing. Hatred. Young people who have no recourse to a better life, especially young people living on the outskirts of cities where there is no attention paid to enhancing the quality of their lives.
How does one change that…?
?????????
Recent Comments