Freedom of Expression-Legal versus Right

There was a major terrorism incident in Paris at the beginning of the month, which has many angles to examine.  A cell of Muslim extremists from Al-Queda in Yemen attacked the creators of a satirical magazine "Charlie Hebdo" killing many of their staff members.  The shooters escaped the scene, and were hunted for two days before being cornered in two locations, and killed by police attempting to rescue hostages that had been taken.

There has been much debate about the incident, which is really about contrasting values in the world.  Charlie Hebdo was a magazine that published deliberately controversial and disrespectful cartoons as part of their satire.  They were deliberately pushing the limits of social norms and political correctness.  Islamic fundamentalists of course claim that they had it coming, while those on the opposite end of the spectrum fully support the magazine, and claim that they should have been able to say whatever they want without fear of retribution.  And everyone else from the pope to the media falls somewhere in the middle.  Directly after the attack, the prevailing reactionary response was to show full support for Charlie Hebdo victims, but that overwhelming opinion seems to be shifting in a more moderate direction as time goes on.

For once I agree with the pope, who condemned the violent attack, but pointed out that you cannot throw insults without expecting a reaction.  "There is a limit. Every religion has its dignity ... in freedom of expression there are limits."  It is not their fault, but they were also not random victims.  It was a targeted attack, with a specific military objective, to quench what Al-Queda saw as overt propaganda and blasphemy.  It was still wrong, but it wasn't unprovoked.

There was initially a movement on social media linking the shootings to an attack on the freedom of speech and expression.  I saw immediately that this was nonsense, because the freedom of speech protects one from the government suppressing what they have to say.  It does not protect one from the other consequences of what they say.  But freedom of speech may now be under attack as a result of the shootings.  There is currently much dialog in the media about whether Charlie Hebdo's type of expression should be outlawed in the same way that Holocaust denial is outlawed in France.  I for one believe that disrespectful insults shouldn't be made, but that the limits should be set by internal discretion, as opposed to external censorship.  Not everything that is wrong should be illegal.  People should have the freedom to set the course of their lives, but must be ready to face the consequences of the decisions that they make.  We all face the possibility of dying as the result of our decisions on a daily basis.  Have you driven a car today?  No amount of legislation eliminates that potential, so why try to minimize it?  Especially if you believe in the theory of natural selection as the source of life.

The surviving Charlie Hebdo staff who published the next issue, which depicted the Prophet Muhammad on the cover, knew exactly what risks they were taking.  But now so does everyone else who is considering publishing something like that.  The government doesn't need to make that decision for them, they should be free to choose for themselves.  The potential consequences should be what causes people to pause, not just because the government may intervene and shut them down.   Just because it's legal doesn't make it right.  Before anything in life that we choose to do, we should ask ourselves: "is this really the right thing to do?" and "am I prepared to face the consequences of what I am about to do?"  Some people are offended that the artists should even have to consider the threat of violent response in their decisions, but that is the reality of the world we live in, and unless we confront and defeat violent extremism and terrorism, that threat isn't going to disappear.

Entering a New Phase

As we enter a new year, I find myself transitioning into a new phase of life.  Being engaged is a relatively short phase, ideally leading to a very long phase, called being married.  And that will be a very big change in life, but one that I am looking forward to.  I am not sure what that will mean for this endeavor in particular, but it will probably mean some sort of change here as well.

I started this blog over three years ago, and I have grown and changed a lot in that period of time.  I have read a lot of books, met a lot of new people, and done a lot of writing.  328 posts later, I have never gone more than a week without publishing something new, although some posts were better than others.  Some of my best work was in the first few weeks, because I had so many ideas I had been storing in my head for so long.  It had taken me quite a while to finally take the step of actually creating a blog, because as usual, I wanted it to be perfect.  Once I finally came up with the theme and title I used, they provided me a wide field to fit the topics and ideas I wanted to explore.

The original intent of this blog was as a tool to help me learn to be more open as a person.  This characteristic was specifically desired because it was a prerequisite for closer relationships with others.  And one of the primary reasons I wanted to be able to build closer relationships with others, was because I was hoping to someday find a close enough relationship that it would lead to marriage.  I think that this project was successful in achieving what I set out to do, measured both by who I have become, and the situation I find myself in.

But what purpose does it now serve?  I am not entirely sure.  I still post every week, but primarily because I have been too OCD to just let it go after a three year run.  But being engaged, I have a new outlet with whom I can be even more open, and practice those skills in the real world instead of just online.  And now it isn't just my own life that I am sharing online, but "our" life.  And it is not necessarily my place to share that on my own.  And speaking of "on my own," I am very rarely on my own, with time by myself to write, or do anything else for that matter.  That has added to the challenge of creating useful posts on a weekly basis.  So it may be time to set this project aside for a while.  I don't intend to abandon it, but I don't intend to maintain the rate at which I have been posting up to this point.  It will be returned to whenever inspiration strikes, or when need for it has arisen again.  In the meantime, I will be preparing for a wedding, and a honeymoon, and then a life ahead.