Cartoons
The debate over the cartoons making fun of the prophet has become quite nuanced.
My first take was that this is an apparent difference between the level of tolerance in the two cultures. And I still believe that is a factor. Whether it is improper or chauvinistic to say that the more mature a culture the less threatened it feels by being criticized or made fun of, I'm not sure.
On a personal level that seems to be so. And it varies from day to day, depneding on how secure within one's self one is feeling. There are days when I can laugh at myself and find being teased great fun. And there are days when I want to kill anyone who looks at me cross-eyed.
And I tend to associate those different responses with how emotionally together I am feeling.
But there is another dimension raised in this week's New Republic; that of thoughtfulness and consideration. If I don't know someone very well, or don't have fairly intimate knowledge of his customs and traditions, I am cautious. I go out of my way to avoid offense. I am what has come to be called politically correct. That is, I try to observe the rules of his culture as I know them.
I read that Denmark has a long tradition of teasing and political attack. One Dane was quoted as saying everyone should relax a little and not take it all so seriously. And for a Dane to take such an attitude toward another Dane is admirable.
Strikes me that we might want to cut people we don't know well a lot of slack. I am appalled that people have died and lives have been threatened - bounties place on the heads of those who published the cartoons - and I am grateful not to live in a culture in which such violent response is triggered by political satire.
But unless we really want to escalate this into something which will require us to respond with equal violence, I don't think President Bush's response on this one is so bad. He said he deplored the violent reponse, but one of the obligations of free people is to consider what the limits of consideration might be.
My first take was that this is an apparent difference between the level of tolerance in the two cultures. And I still believe that is a factor. Whether it is improper or chauvinistic to say that the more mature a culture the less threatened it feels by being criticized or made fun of, I'm not sure.
On a personal level that seems to be so. And it varies from day to day, depneding on how secure within one's self one is feeling. There are days when I can laugh at myself and find being teased great fun. And there are days when I want to kill anyone who looks at me cross-eyed.
And I tend to associate those different responses with how emotionally together I am feeling.
But there is another dimension raised in this week's New Republic; that of thoughtfulness and consideration. If I don't know someone very well, or don't have fairly intimate knowledge of his customs and traditions, I am cautious. I go out of my way to avoid offense. I am what has come to be called politically correct. That is, I try to observe the rules of his culture as I know them.
I read that Denmark has a long tradition of teasing and political attack. One Dane was quoted as saying everyone should relax a little and not take it all so seriously. And for a Dane to take such an attitude toward another Dane is admirable.
Strikes me that we might want to cut people we don't know well a lot of slack. I am appalled that people have died and lives have been threatened - bounties place on the heads of those who published the cartoons - and I am grateful not to live in a culture in which such violent response is triggered by political satire.
But unless we really want to escalate this into something which will require us to respond with equal violence, I don't think President Bush's response on this one is so bad. He said he deplored the violent reponse, but one of the obligations of free people is to consider what the limits of consideration might be.
posted by Blayney at 10:24 AM
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