I’ve been going back and forth about this. Yes, I believe in free speech, absolutely. I also believe some speech is pointless and violent, and it’s going to provoke that kind of response. What to do about it? I haven’t a clue. I like people to get along:
A week after the massacre at the headquarters of a French publication known for insulting adherents of several faiths, Pope Francis told reporters that freedom of expression has its limits when it comes to insulting religion.
Or, he joked, his mom.
Calling freedom of expression a “fundamental” human right, the pope outlined why he believes there are limits to that right. If someone “says a curse word against my mother, he can expect a punch,” he joked, according to an Associated Press translation. “It’s normal. It’s normal. You cannot provoke. You cannot insult the faith of others. You cannot make fun of the faith of others.”
Despite joking about his mother, Francis also condemned violent retaliation. “One cannot offend, make war, kill in the name of one’s own religion — that is, in the name of God,” the pope said. “To kill in the name of God is an aberration.”
“The liberty of the individual to do as he pleases, even in innocent matters, is not absolute. It must frequently yield to the common good.” Justice George Sutherland, 1925.
Isn’t the discussion that we’re having about “free speech” actually all about how we define the “common good?” In other words what’s best for the group as a whole? So we can all get along?
Does what the FOX War Network broadcasts on a daily basis contribute to the common good?
How about what Charlie Hebdo publishes?
These writers purposefully injected themselves into a brutal, ruthless war conducted against a radially conservative sect of Islam. They dropped propaganda instead of bombs, but they were combatants just the same. They landed several propaganda attacks and their enemy fought back. Charlie Hebdo put its offices on the battlefield and defied the enemy to do anything about it. Their cartoons were stupid, vulgar, hateful and not a bit funny and they messed with the wrong people.
In the scheme of things it was a tiny engagement, much less damage than an air strike, drone missile or artillery barrage, and we inflict dozens of those attacks on their people every day. According to our own rules this war is being conducted far outside the bounds of law or constitutional rights, so don’t be surprised when our opponents don’t observe such limits.
Anyhow the people accused and executed probably has nothing to do with it in the first place. Look to western security services for the real criminals.
“Western security services” are rounding up scores of “suspected terrorists” across Europe.
Here in the US our own FBI arrested Christopher Lee Cornell the other day in Ohio and charged him with “planning to bomb the capital building.”
Christopher is what we all like to refer to around here as a “low-information voter.” This poor jerk was set up by the FBI.
But Christopher isn’t the first and he won’t be the last poor bastard that the FBI plays for a jerk.
In May 2009, the FBI set up and arrested 4 men from Newburg, New York. Onta Williams, David Williams, Laguerre Payen and James Cromitie were all charged with plotting to blow up a synagogue and some empty planes parked on a tarmac. Just like in Christopher’s case all of the weapons that they were going to use were supplied to them by the FBI. And as with Christopher it was an FBI informant, under indictment for another crime, who set the entire game in motion.
Wanna bet that most of the arrests all across Europe are just as bogus?
Blasphemy laws ancient and modern have an inexorable relation to violence, state sponsored and otherwise. There is no such thing as an inquisition done lite. An idea so fragile that it needs the cover of criminal law to protect it merits ridicule.
Don’t you think that such laws were created more to protect the power and prestige of an individual or group? The word sacred comes to mind as in “is there nothing sacred anymore?”
Lenny Bruce was a master of lampooning the scared. Being willing to do that always carries a price. Although that price shouldn’t be the death penalty.
Which begs the question: who gave Lenny that ‘hot shot’?
I don’t know. What’s the Pope supposed to say? He called for people to respect each other and to turn the other cheek if you don’t get it.