A Mid-Morning Rant

I asked my wife what her opinion of the Danish comics was. She sat down and wrote this reply.

"People have been talking left and right about the Danish cartoons of the prophet Mohammad. Some are furious at the Danish for such mockeries; some angry at Muslims for their public demonstrations of outrage. What neither side sees is a lose-lose situation. This country has been caught in a Catch-22 in which we either bow and scrape to the moral debasement of the media or to the economic influence of the East.

This is not the first time a famous character has been made fun of in print. Just hop on Google and you’ll find comics of any famous character, including religious icons. Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Sikhs, we’ve all had our share in the satire spotlight. Why should Mohammad be any different? The West is a culture of making fun. Otherwise, late-night television would cease to exist and several comics would be out of jobs. We make a living of making fun of others. Modern-day Western society has learned to have a thick skin and take pleasure in being made fun of. This means enough people recognize our names and personalities to make fun of us. So what’s so different about this?

The difference is who’s doing the “insulted” dance. The US is currently walking a very thin line when it comes to relations with the Middle East. Their oil supply is a powerful reason for politicians to smile and talk peace, even while soldiers fight wars in the streets. The East is as intelligent as we are; we just don’t realize it. They are taking this for everything they can. By crying “censorship” and trying to shut down the media machine, they have just broken through what we feel is our greatest privilege and honor – our right to say what we think. It’s a greater blow than any building they could bomb.

On the other hand is that media machine. Why does the media come up with outrageous stories, commercials and shows that scandalize the public? Because people will pay attention to them. It’s a sad but true fact: people find "good" boring. The corrupt, the inept, the insane and the outright stupid get more attention from the paying public than anything else – and the media cashes in on it every day. If you don’t believe me, look at the magazines on the checkout stand or watch primetime TV. Danish media is doing better than ever. Do you think they’re going to stop now that they have world-wide attention? If anything, someone has to think of something new to push the envelope and get attention away from them. The East has been a media darling for years. The Danes simply picked up a new piece of the pie.

So who wins in this nice little stare down? If the East is able to convince the media to censor the comics, what else will be demanded? Will books that slander the prophet be burned? What about songs, art, and the spoken word? Will these be censored too? If so, we have lost everything that free speech stands for. On the other hand, if the media goes untouched, the degradation of the human spirit will be allowed to continue unchecked. The argument of free speech is the same that allows the KKK, Nazis, pornography and all other cancers on the human race to spawn their ideas onto the public mind. Until humanity is willing to cry out with one voice and whole-heartedly refuse and reject such media, it will continue to exist and grow, swollen with money from gossip-greedy consumers."

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