Larry Gude
Strung Out
"We, the major newspapers of this great nation and the mass media and mainstream comediens and commentators are, it turns out, nothing more than a bunch of hypocritical cowards."
"We WILL attack and disect and redicule ANYTHING that comes our way, just as long as we are pretty sure it won't bite back, at least not too hard."
You cannot draw cartoons of this religious figure.
Which one?
The one, you know, that got Rushdie in so much trouble and the one where that van Gogh guy got stabbed to death over his movie depicting how they, you know, THEM, treat their women. And don't forget the chick who got kidnapped. Bet they cut her head off sooner or later! Yikes! That could be ME!
Huh?
The Islam thing...shhhhh!!!!
OK folks, here we are a week or more into what has become THE biggest news story around the globe of late; cartoons mocking Mohammed and Islam and the violent protests this has 'incited' and the details are being danced around by US media types who normally can't wait to dive in head first when someone tells them or even hints "You can't do that!"
Imagine, if you will, any subject, a news story, especially a big juicy one where the aforementioned NEWS and OPINION outlets will not comment on the details or show pictures of the actual subject. I'm not gonna wait because you can't find one.
I say 'US' and not 'Western' because, believe it or not, France and Germany found their spine and Italy ain't rolling over either. They've all re-printed the cartoons.
If you line up six people and then kick each one in the shin, you'll get various reactions, from an 'I'm sorry, was I in your way?' to a punch in the face. You now have the base character of each of these people, who they ARE.
Now, civilization is the business of taking each of these people and teaching them how to not over, nor under, react. Getting kicked in the shin out of the clear blue sky would probably best, as a civilized norm, illicit an 'Hey! Watch it! What'd you do that for?" and expect an apology or at least an explanation. That way, no matter who we are, we learn to get along by expecting a bit of effort from everyone to work towards an acceptable norm.
Islams people are in the process of trying to convince the world that cartoons from Denmark are the equivalent of getting kicked in the shin out of the clear blue sky, real hard, and that the appropriate response is...riots, death, arson, mayhem. They are saying 'You can NOT do that!"
French and German and Italian papers have kicked back. They are saying, along with the Danes, 'Get over yourself. You were not kicked in the shin and if you insist you were, your response is inappropriate.
Our media, US media, just said "I'm sorry, was I in your way?" to the rioters and a religion gone mad over...cartoons.
The excuse, so far, is 'sensitivity' to a religion.
Now, imagine something that offended, oh, say Christians, occured. Let's say, uhmmm...the cross sitting in a jar of urine. Or maybe the Virgin Mary covered in elephant poo. Or cartoons depicting Christianity or Catholcism or Judaism in an unflattering light. "Well..." they'd say in response to outrage or protest, "...those people (religious freaks, wink, wink) also have rules against eating pork and shrimp so how serious we gonna take them anyway? It's just art, free expression. Get over it. See? Look, it's JUST a picture...a word...an opinion."
Point made?
No? OK, add in an hypocrisy angle. Charles Krauthammer points out today that there is daily slamming of Christianity and especially Judaism...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/09/AR2006020901434.html
...throughout the Middle east from sermoms calling Jews sons of pigs and monkeys to a rabbi slaughtering a non Jew to drink his blood and so on and so forth.
Does that free up our guys to do their thing, the fact that the offended are offenders?
Nope. Not yet anyway.
Michael Kinsley, hilariously, blames this 'hesitancy' to be critical on...President Bush...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/09/AR2006020901432.html
...of course. Along with everything else he's reponsible for that he's messed up, now he's messing up free speech.
David Ignatius, in the most profound case, ever, of missing the point says Muslims are reacting like this is the 'N' word...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/09/AR2006020901424.html
...somehow completley missing that we hear '######' a million times a day in our culture, spoken by...blacks. And whites used to freely use the word. David!!! Muslims aren't allowed to draw Mohammed cartoons either! Never were! Are you high? Classic case of trying to blame something, ANYTHING for ones own fears.
Now, getting back to our news people kicked in the shin. Two things are abundantly clear;
1. Muslims are in serious need of working on over reaction. If you truly want the world to view you as people who prefer death and destruction to other people enjoying cartoons or making jokes, your faith WILL continue to decline and will become a joke, by your own hand. You can NOT both redicule other faiths AND express outrage when it happnens to you and you absolutely cannot expect to impose your morality on other people, in this case the entire world.
2. Our media types are in serious need of working on under reacting. Just because most people suspected hypocrisy and cowardice of the media culture doesn't mean it should stay that way. France and Germany and Italy are standing tall with Denmark and the ideas of free speech that, allegedly, is the very reason for your existence. They need you NOW. We need you to stand up. NOW.
Guess what? Islam needs you now as well. Clerics and political leaders and others who stand to gain from inciting violence don't represent the vast majority of Muslims anymore than David Duke represents the vast majoity of Christians.
While Christians and Jews and our endless other groups including blacks and gays and Poles and Italians so on and on have taken offense at slights and insults and CARTOONS over the years, in our world, that is no excuse to violence by the majority. You accept differences. You learn to laugh at yourself a bit. Develop humility. You learn to get along. Or you fade away, stuck in an insulated, monolithic culture.
And there is the saving grace, if you will, in all this. Sooner or later our media types will recognize that they need to get up to speed and start doing Muslim jokes and showing cartoons and reporting on the things they see as silly about Islam but are presently afraid to say.
Why? Because if they don't then they put themselves in a position of having to apologize and take back landfills worth of material aimed at other peoples and faiths and there is no way in hell that they climb into bed with Falwell and Robertson and say...
"You know what? You were right!"
Come on people! Find your spine! Even the French did!
"We WILL attack and disect and redicule ANYTHING that comes our way, just as long as we are pretty sure it won't bite back, at least not too hard."
You cannot draw cartoons of this religious figure.
Which one?
The one, you know, that got Rushdie in so much trouble and the one where that van Gogh guy got stabbed to death over his movie depicting how they, you know, THEM, treat their women. And don't forget the chick who got kidnapped. Bet they cut her head off sooner or later! Yikes! That could be ME!
Huh?
The Islam thing...shhhhh!!!!
OK folks, here we are a week or more into what has become THE biggest news story around the globe of late; cartoons mocking Mohammed and Islam and the violent protests this has 'incited' and the details are being danced around by US media types who normally can't wait to dive in head first when someone tells them or even hints "You can't do that!"
Imagine, if you will, any subject, a news story, especially a big juicy one where the aforementioned NEWS and OPINION outlets will not comment on the details or show pictures of the actual subject. I'm not gonna wait because you can't find one.
I say 'US' and not 'Western' because, believe it or not, France and Germany found their spine and Italy ain't rolling over either. They've all re-printed the cartoons.
If you line up six people and then kick each one in the shin, you'll get various reactions, from an 'I'm sorry, was I in your way?' to a punch in the face. You now have the base character of each of these people, who they ARE.
Now, civilization is the business of taking each of these people and teaching them how to not over, nor under, react. Getting kicked in the shin out of the clear blue sky would probably best, as a civilized norm, illicit an 'Hey! Watch it! What'd you do that for?" and expect an apology or at least an explanation. That way, no matter who we are, we learn to get along by expecting a bit of effort from everyone to work towards an acceptable norm.
Islams people are in the process of trying to convince the world that cartoons from Denmark are the equivalent of getting kicked in the shin out of the clear blue sky, real hard, and that the appropriate response is...riots, death, arson, mayhem. They are saying 'You can NOT do that!"
French and German and Italian papers have kicked back. They are saying, along with the Danes, 'Get over yourself. You were not kicked in the shin and if you insist you were, your response is inappropriate.
Our media, US media, just said "I'm sorry, was I in your way?" to the rioters and a religion gone mad over...cartoons.
The excuse, so far, is 'sensitivity' to a religion.
Now, imagine something that offended, oh, say Christians, occured. Let's say, uhmmm...the cross sitting in a jar of urine. Or maybe the Virgin Mary covered in elephant poo. Or cartoons depicting Christianity or Catholcism or Judaism in an unflattering light. "Well..." they'd say in response to outrage or protest, "...those people (religious freaks, wink, wink) also have rules against eating pork and shrimp so how serious we gonna take them anyway? It's just art, free expression. Get over it. See? Look, it's JUST a picture...a word...an opinion."
Point made?
No? OK, add in an hypocrisy angle. Charles Krauthammer points out today that there is daily slamming of Christianity and especially Judaism...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/09/AR2006020901434.html
...throughout the Middle east from sermoms calling Jews sons of pigs and monkeys to a rabbi slaughtering a non Jew to drink his blood and so on and so forth.
Does that free up our guys to do their thing, the fact that the offended are offenders?
Nope. Not yet anyway.
Michael Kinsley, hilariously, blames this 'hesitancy' to be critical on...President Bush...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/09/AR2006020901432.html
...of course. Along with everything else he's reponsible for that he's messed up, now he's messing up free speech.
David Ignatius, in the most profound case, ever, of missing the point says Muslims are reacting like this is the 'N' word...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/09/AR2006020901424.html
...somehow completley missing that we hear '######' a million times a day in our culture, spoken by...blacks. And whites used to freely use the word. David!!! Muslims aren't allowed to draw Mohammed cartoons either! Never were! Are you high? Classic case of trying to blame something, ANYTHING for ones own fears.
Now, getting back to our news people kicked in the shin. Two things are abundantly clear;
1. Muslims are in serious need of working on over reaction. If you truly want the world to view you as people who prefer death and destruction to other people enjoying cartoons or making jokes, your faith WILL continue to decline and will become a joke, by your own hand. You can NOT both redicule other faiths AND express outrage when it happnens to you and you absolutely cannot expect to impose your morality on other people, in this case the entire world.
2. Our media types are in serious need of working on under reacting. Just because most people suspected hypocrisy and cowardice of the media culture doesn't mean it should stay that way. France and Germany and Italy are standing tall with Denmark and the ideas of free speech that, allegedly, is the very reason for your existence. They need you NOW. We need you to stand up. NOW.
Guess what? Islam needs you now as well. Clerics and political leaders and others who stand to gain from inciting violence don't represent the vast majority of Muslims anymore than David Duke represents the vast majoity of Christians.
While Christians and Jews and our endless other groups including blacks and gays and Poles and Italians so on and on have taken offense at slights and insults and CARTOONS over the years, in our world, that is no excuse to violence by the majority. You accept differences. You learn to laugh at yourself a bit. Develop humility. You learn to get along. Or you fade away, stuck in an insulated, monolithic culture.
And there is the saving grace, if you will, in all this. Sooner or later our media types will recognize that they need to get up to speed and start doing Muslim jokes and showing cartoons and reporting on the things they see as silly about Islam but are presently afraid to say.
Why? Because if they don't then they put themselves in a position of having to apologize and take back landfills worth of material aimed at other peoples and faiths and there is no way in hell that they climb into bed with Falwell and Robertson and say...
"You know what? You were right!"
Come on people! Find your spine! Even the French did!
