Posted on 02/03/2006 5:04:00 AM PST by .cnI redruM
Voltaire has a firm place in the eschaton for his remark that “The pen is mightier than the sword.” It’s a remark that stands in The Western Canon and all of us in The United States get it read to us as if it were a divine revelation. Muslims get read to out of a different canon.
A set of cartoons in a Dutch newspaper depicted the prophet Muhammad with a bomb on his head instead of a turban and the images were reprinted in France. At this point Muslim religious and civil leaders in Turkey and elsewhere decided that Savonarola had a point. The sermons at the mosques in Gaza and Pakistan condemned the cartoons and angry mobs started yelling “Death to France.”
Muslims yelling “Death to France” is not an unusual event. You can see that in Paris several nights a week. Just don’t park nearby the demonstration unless you feel confidant in your insurance company.
What is unusual is the level of “respect” and “deference” that the American Media is treating Muslims with. Michelle Malkin points that fallacy out in her blog. Ted Turner feels no strain while calling out Christians as Jesus Freaks. CNN won’t show the “offensive” cartoons because it is too sensitive to offend Muslims.
This sad truth repeats itself on the Internet daily. You’ll have to go to Human Events to see the cartoons that so offended the Turkish Prime Minister. You can find numerous links to “Piss Christ” by Andres Serrano just by typing it into Yahoo or Wikipedia. You’ll hear all about the wonderful contributions Serrano made to freedom of speech.
The bottom line here is this. The pen is in no way mightier than the sword. CNN will show us “The Madonna Dipped in Dung” or “Kanye’s Crucifixion” without hesitation. CNN wouldn’t dare offend the poor, fragile sensitive Muslims.
CNN knows good and well that it can call Pat Robertson “The American Taliban” all day long and not have any risk of having their building leveled. They know they can die in two seconds flat if they call the original Taliban, that flattened the World Trade Center, anything other than a glorious insurgency. This, in part, explains why CNN reports the Global War On Terror the way in which it does.
This brings up the fundamental flaw underpinning arguments by strategic thinkers such as Thomas P. M. Barnett. Connecting the people of tyrannical countries to content will in no way change them if the leadership tyrannizing those countries can censor the content and intimidate the content providers into lying, rather than telling the truth.
When CNN becomes afraid to show the anti-Muslim cartoons as readily as it will splash “Piss Christ” on the front of its website, they become complicit and no better than J.R.R. Tolkien’s smarmy and duplicitous Mouth of Sauron. Whether CNN does the work of Leni Riefenstahl out of fear or out of malice makes no difference in the end. The bottom line remains, the pen is indeed, far less mighty than the sword, when the sword is wielded with determination, and no sense of remorse.
http://michellemalkin.com/archives/004440.htm - A link to Malkin's post in asimilar vein.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piss_Christ - Since it's Friday, you might even be able to stand Serrano (included to put my comments in proper context, not to support his continued "art".)
If there was a concerted world-wide effort to insult muslims would they totally flip out and become impotent as a group?
Look at the results of one cartoon.
Our free press and freedoms that allow loonies like Cindy Sheehan have completely failed at making the U.S. public "concerned" over either collateral damage or the destruction normally reaped in warfare. Therefore, since 1960, virtually ALL anti-war efforts have emphasized our casualties and the harms to our society.
This, however, has not reduced our involvement in wars (in my view, all of them just) but HAS changed our military's effectiveness, because even more than WW I (and this was huge after WW I), we have become even more sensitive to taking casualties. But rather than making us wimps, it has made our troops the best trained, most efficient, best armored, and best supported military forces in human history.
The exposition in the book is longer, but you get the point: the anti-war nuts have actually made our troopers and sailors and airmen DEADLIER, and resulted in even fewer dying.
"Alex, I'll take the penis mighty for $20"
What has made the pen mightier than the sword is those people throughout history who cared more for the power of their ideas than for the safety of their own skins. The person may be persecuted, injured, imprisoned, or killed, but the idea lives on and eventually emerges victorious over those who may have destroyed the idea's originator.
It's a natural human reaction to be concerned with self-preservation. But if these people and publications truly believe in their self-given titles as defenders of free speech, then they may have to risk pain, humiliation, or even death in order to make that fight. Turning tail and cowering, for any reason, makes them hypocrites.
The correct reaction to this "furor" is for every news organization in the world to run the cartoons. Firstly, it is a major news story. Secondly, they need to present a united "don't **** with us" attitude that they will not be cowed or censored. So, since we know the correct approach, we can also predict what CNN will do: just the opposite.
(((Sigh)))
Sadly, we've long known we can't trust CNN ("we'll supress news so we can get access") on this score. Google is now singing the same, capitulating, tune.
For those who haven't had the pleasure:
That was funny...
Yep. Cnn will not republish the cartoons 'out of respect for Islam' but has not problem showing hostages, flag-burnings, bodies hanging from bridges or publishing National Security secrets (even thought the Times did it first)
Yep, fair and balanced, my a$$.
Not exactly the connection, but the fact is that since the Civil War, CIVILIAN concerns over casualties have pressured the military to steadily address battlefield casualties. You're welcome to read the primary sources from the Army in WW I where there are regular references to the CIVILIAN outcry about casualties.
Beat me to it...so to speak.
Here's your problem. America hasn't won a war in 61 years.
Here's your problem: you believe that nonsense.
I was channel surfing a day or two ago, and I was just passin' through CNN when I say a teaser that talked about how the Muslims have had it (with anti-Muslims slights). I wonder if it should be renamed the Crescent News Network.
Come now, it's an objective fact. No one won Korea, we lost Vietnam, GW1 we let Saddam get up and keep on keeping on... And this war isn't won yet. It's not nonsense.
The stated military goal of the First Gulf War was to eject The Iraqi Army from Kuwait. The Iraqi Army was forcibly ejected. Therefore, The US and it's coalition won.
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