The Truth and Charlie Hebdo

There is an old adage that good humor contains at least a grain of truth. This is particularly true in the case of political humor much of which is based on satire and the magazine Charlie Hebdo was the French king of political satire. Nothing was safe from its arrows. The fact that the magazine published satire regarding islam and its icons is not surprising because the inherent hypocrisy of it is ripe for satire on so many fronts. The old dont call islam violent or well kill you" statement leads the pack but is only the tip of the iceberg. It is also an axiom of civilized society that a mature individual is one who can take a joke on himself or herself. At least if it is in good taste or harmless in general. Jack Benny made a career out of making fun of himself and was one of Americas best loved comedians. His continuing feud" with Fred Allen was the stuff of legends and both men knew that it was good for business so they kept it up while being friends when they were not in front of an audience. Todays environment no longer seems capable of supporting satiric humor. Chris Rock purportedly no longer appears at colleges because the audiences dont appreciate his entertainment.   Satire is now considered offensive rather than humorous. It is a sad state of affairs; particularly as satire has an honorable history dating from Ancient Greece through Rome The Renaissance and so on. But in the wake of this attack and its aftermath it becomes necessary to evaluate the situation and the reaction to past attacks etc. The question that appeared in the headline of Townhall PM on Friday January 09 2015 was Does The Obama Administration Have a Strategy to Fight Islamic Terrorism?" Katie Pavlich has it right; especially in her conclusion that there is no strategy. The key issue here that needs to be recognized is the same as in general psychology. If you want to solve a personal problem first you have to recognize that one exists and identify what it is. That is the problem with the terrorist violence today. Further at the center of the situation is one simple fact. If western civilization or any other for that matter wants to survive then it must protect and defend its history and interests against those who would destroy it. And today we see the forces of destruction arrayed all over the world as if they believe that the hour of their trimuph has arrived. In war you cannot win if you do not recognize that you are being attacked. Too many leaders" want to wish the war away by pretending that there is nothing other than a few terrorists acting in some misguided manner because they have a grudge. Or something similar. This view is dead wrong. What needs to be understood is that the worlds cultures which have recently become obsessed with the ideas of supposed tolerance and diversity are facing a threat that seeks to establish an intolerant monoculture answerable to a barbaric authoritarian government that demands to be worshiped through the pretense that it is serving a god. The belief that all cultures are equally valid" drives the acceptance of this monocultural entity into modern society on the premise that it is as harmless and any other. It isnt and has no intention of being harmless. In fact while the current violent activities are generally confined to a minority the vast majority of the rest support the violence even if they do not actively participate in it themselves. Opinion surveys have shown this time and again. But the advocates of diversity refuse to accept this as truth or assert that these opinions are the result of valid grudges based on past events. They do not recognize that they are dealing with the equivalent of a schoolyard bully who beats up others because he can. America is unfortunately caught in a problematic situation because if the constitutional freedom of religion which our nation has held sacred for centuries. If we accept the idea that all religions" are equally valid then we make the mistake of granting validity to something that hold the status of a religion largely because of its antiquity rather than anything else. Ever since the 2001 attacks this writer has maintained that islam is not a religion. Finally it seems that another writer has accepted this position. Phil Elmore writing for WND recently published the following in a column that probably received less attention than it should.

Islam is not compatible with the modern world. Islam is a death cult a socio-political control scheme masquerading as a religion whose only spirituality is conquest and whose only public expression seems to be murder (or forbearance therefrom). As the saying goes a radical Muslim wants to kill you and a moderate Muslim wants a radical Muslim to kill you.

This attitude is central to the muslim world view which can also be summed up in another simple statement. To a muslim everything you do is wrong and everything they do is correct. Thus they assert you must be brought into line with their correctness. Again we can turn to Elmores piece.

Muslims cannot agree to disagree. They cannot abide dissent. They refuse the exchange of information culturally and socially. Oppose them and they will kill you. Accuse them of being intolerant and they will kill you. Complain that they are violent and they will kill you.

France imported its own problems when it brought in foreign laborers to do what its own people should have been doing. Pretending that there is no problem is the fantasy that many modern governments wish to perpetuate. It is easier that taking action which is the last thing that they want do. But Charlie Hebdo spoke the truth and in so doing brought about a terrible incident that should never have happened and would not if France had required everyone who lived within its borders to conform to French norms. Charlie Hebdo was sounding the warning sirens that everyone should be listening to and taking action on. Now with so many of its people dead the need for action is even greater. The desire of government may be even less despite public calls for protection of the nation its people and heritage. One thing that we an say for sure is that the muslims who participate in or condone such violence are still living in the world of children who believe that the only proper response to not getting what they want is a temper tantrum of homicidal proportions. On the other hand indulgent parents who dont recognize this as improper and administer a good spanking become enablers. In the final analysis islam wont be ready to join the modern world until satires of their so called prophet are prominently featured in all of their publications condemning his violence pedophilia and desires to be worshiped as a god. Of course when this happens the whole system falls apart. Which just goes to show that a false religion with a false god that is based primarily on violence is simply false nothing more.