Friday, February 10, 2006
“Sticks and stones may break my bones” – but words can sometimes be a form of violence II
(First post is here)
Not a valid excuse for violent activity “speech”, in response to violent words, however, is simply being hopelessly outgunned/outclassed in the words department. That is, if more speech is contextually practicable, but the right words can’t or don’t come out, then the insultee just has to suck it and stew. (In both sport and war, the law of the jungle is thought positively desirable, or at least universally accepted, so why not in contests of education and wit?)
Saying this goes against a strong Australian tradition, admittedly – a tradition as diverse as the thoughts of PM John Howard (in giving license for non-violent “provocative” political protesters to be bashed, or worse), law-of-protests specialist Roger Douglas*, and the composition of the jury who acquitted, against all rational evidence, the bouncer who struck and killed David Hookes.
Zdravko Micevic was found to have killed Hookes in self-defence, despite the deceased not having thrown any punches. While the evidence on what Hookes might have said to enrage Micevic was murky, it appears that Hookes, at worst, threatened to use his media influence to have the pub closed down, or some-such. Plainly for Micevic, being a semi-literate fuck-knuckle, nothing less than king-hitting a quite-drunk man was going to be an appropriate form of “speech” in response to such a core-of-one’s-identity (NOT) insult (NOT). Whatever – but I’m flabbergasted that a jury would buy this argument. I only wish that they, and any other Australians who agree with this view, could be made to wear, whenever in public, a T-shirt that reads: “WARNING: do not say anything to me that might be construed as an insult. If you do, I reserve the right to murder you, with legal impunity”.
Which nicely segues us back to the Danish cartoons – although I start by making the point that the Muslim population generally is still an objective pillar of restraint, on an objective scale of insult-and-response, than Micevic specifically. A surprising recent twist is the evident hypocrisy of Jyllands-Posten's editorial standards: “offensive” Jesus cartoons were rejected by the paper three years ago.
While the editorship did change between the Jesus cartoons and last year’s Mohammed ones, the two editors concerned are determined to put up the semblance of a united front. Which first struck me as strange: surely it’s not too big a deal for the ex-editor to admit he made an oversight, or even mistake, in censoring the Jesus cartoons?
No sirree – it appears that we have got a Boomer Cabal on our hands. (Now, if at this point you’re frowning: “He just had to bring boomers in at some point”, please hear me out). I reckon that ex-editor Jens Kaiser and current editor Flemming Rose just have to both be boomers, based on their extraordinary logic of patent offensiveness being defensible if it is invited by the editor. (This is haute-boomer thinking because invitations/mutuality are a currency even more hoarded by boomers than money).
In response to “Jesus” cartoonist Christoffer Zieler (who I would guess to be an Xer, BTW, solely for (i) his being talented, but (iii) not toeing the boomer line) saying that Jens Kaiser rejected running the cartoons, because they would be considered offensive to readers, Kaiser prevaricates:
"My fault is that I didn't tell him what I really meant: The cartoons were bad [as in not funny]," Kaiser said in a statement. He said he told Zieler he had not used the cartoons because they were offensive to some readers.
So which is it, Jens? Personally, and constitutionally incapable of taking offence at either set of cartoons, I find the Jesus ones (described in same URL) as much funnier than any of the Mohammed ones (the running out of virgins one aside, perhaps).
Anyway, valiantly trying to cut through confused explanation of his (presumed) co-boomer, is current editor Flemming Rose, who emphasises the different treatment was because the Jesus cartoons were an unsolicited freelance submission, while of course the Mohammed ones were famously by invitation (only).
To me as an Xer, running a media by invitation (only) is a form of serious provocation. And in saying that, I don’t mean it in a “My speech can be better than yours” kind of way – rather, “provocation” as in justifying a psycho-unhinged Micevic kind of response. And so in the end, the Danish cartoons may be more about the (necessary) clash of generations than the (gratuitous) clash of cultures/religions.
* “Douglas . . . concludes that public order laws are part of the price which civil liberties law must pay for its legitimacy: ‘a legal regime in which people were free to offend and insult others, and in which those others were forbidden to retaliate (except for counter-offensiveness and insults) would be likely to arouse considerable resentment.’”
- quoted in Stan Winford & Peter Noble, “Activism, the law & social change” Overland no. 179 (Winter 2005) p. 22 at 26.
(First post is here)
Not a valid excuse for violent activity “speech”, in response to violent words, however, is simply being hopelessly outgunned/outclassed in the words department. That is, if more speech is contextually practicable, but the right words can’t or don’t come out, then the insultee just has to suck it and stew. (In both sport and war, the law of the jungle is thought positively desirable, or at least universally accepted, so why not in contests of education and wit?)
Saying this goes against a strong Australian tradition, admittedly – a tradition as diverse as the thoughts of PM John Howard (in giving license for non-violent “provocative” political protesters to be bashed, or worse), law-of-protests specialist Roger Douglas*, and the composition of the jury who acquitted, against all rational evidence, the bouncer who struck and killed David Hookes.
Zdravko Micevic was found to have killed Hookes in self-defence, despite the deceased not having thrown any punches. While the evidence on what Hookes might have said to enrage Micevic was murky, it appears that Hookes, at worst, threatened to use his media influence to have the pub closed down, or some-such. Plainly for Micevic, being a semi-literate fuck-knuckle, nothing less than king-hitting a quite-drunk man was going to be an appropriate form of “speech” in response to such a core-of-one’s-identity (NOT) insult (NOT). Whatever – but I’m flabbergasted that a jury would buy this argument. I only wish that they, and any other Australians who agree with this view, could be made to wear, whenever in public, a T-shirt that reads: “WARNING: do not say anything to me that might be construed as an insult. If you do, I reserve the right to murder you, with legal impunity”.
Which nicely segues us back to the Danish cartoons – although I start by making the point that the Muslim population generally is still an objective pillar of restraint, on an objective scale of insult-and-response, than Micevic specifically. A surprising recent twist is the evident hypocrisy of Jyllands-Posten's editorial standards: “offensive” Jesus cartoons were rejected by the paper three years ago.
While the editorship did change between the Jesus cartoons and last year’s Mohammed ones, the two editors concerned are determined to put up the semblance of a united front. Which first struck me as strange: surely it’s not too big a deal for the ex-editor to admit he made an oversight, or even mistake, in censoring the Jesus cartoons?
No sirree – it appears that we have got a Boomer Cabal on our hands. (Now, if at this point you’re frowning: “He just had to bring boomers in at some point”, please hear me out). I reckon that ex-editor Jens Kaiser and current editor Flemming Rose just have to both be boomers, based on their extraordinary logic of patent offensiveness being defensible if it is invited by the editor. (This is haute-boomer thinking because invitations/mutuality are a currency even more hoarded by boomers than money).
In response to “Jesus” cartoonist Christoffer Zieler (who I would guess to be an Xer, BTW, solely for (i) his being talented, but (iii) not toeing the boomer line) saying that Jens Kaiser rejected running the cartoons, because they would be considered offensive to readers, Kaiser prevaricates:
"My fault is that I didn't tell him what I really meant: The cartoons were bad [as in not funny]," Kaiser said in a statement. He said he told Zieler he had not used the cartoons because they were offensive to some readers.
So which is it, Jens? Personally, and constitutionally incapable of taking offence at either set of cartoons, I find the Jesus ones (described in same URL) as much funnier than any of the Mohammed ones (the running out of virgins one aside, perhaps).
Anyway, valiantly trying to cut through confused explanation of his (presumed) co-boomer, is current editor Flemming Rose, who emphasises the different treatment was because the Jesus cartoons were an unsolicited freelance submission, while of course the Mohammed ones were famously by invitation (only).
To me as an Xer, running a media by invitation (only) is a form of serious provocation. And in saying that, I don’t mean it in a “My speech can be better than yours” kind of way – rather, “provocation” as in justifying a psycho-unhinged Micevic kind of response. And so in the end, the Danish cartoons may be more about the (necessary) clash of generations than the (gratuitous) clash of cultures/religions.
* “Douglas . . . concludes that public order laws are part of the price which civil liberties law must pay for its legitimacy: ‘a legal regime in which people were free to offend and insult others, and in which those others were forbidden to retaliate (except for counter-offensiveness and insults) would be likely to arouse considerable resentment.’”
- quoted in Stan Winford & Peter Noble, “Activism, the law & social change” Overland no. 179 (Winter 2005) p. 22 at 26.
Thursday, February 09, 2006
Should Australia become officially bilingual?
In the last decade or so, Australia has become a de facto bilingual country. While English remains the predominant – and sole official, although there are cracks appearing in this policy (see below) – language, written and spoken Chinese is now more pervasive than any minority language has been since Australia’s annexation by England. (“Chinese” here is used to mean both the monoform written language and the plurality of spoken languages and dialects – while this may thus seem to necessarily require multi-lingualism, a large measure of official bilingualism does rest with the written word.)
My prompt for this post came from browsing the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission website which has (what I’m guessing is) the organisation’s name in Chinese embedded in its top banner, along with the Australian coat of arms and the ACCC’s logo. This bilingual naming of a government agency would not seem to be officially sanctioned, or even widespread. Austrade’s website, for example, does not follow the ACCC approach.
Official, mandatory bilingualism, as Canada’s case shows, can be Orwellian over-zealous and annoyingly petty at the same time. Worst of all, though, with a majority-Anglophone/minority-Francophone population split that roughly parallels Australia’s non-Chinese/Chinese numbers, three decades of the policy have seemingly hardened Francophone’s sense of a separate identity. While there are cogent reasons why the experience of Canada’s Francophones can’t be easily extrapolated to Australia’s Chinese (geography, for one: the former are highly concentrated in Quebec province), it is clear that in terms of the raison d’etre of Canadian bilingualism – bringing majority and minority together – it has been a manifest failure.
OTOH, unofficial bilingualism, as Australia is pursuing currently, seems to me to be a cop-out. I am surprised by the complete absence (AFAICT) of academic/OpEd discussion of language policy in Australia. (Another eloquent ruin of boomer policy-making: multiculturalism – largely premised on poly-lingual service delivery to marginalized first-generation migrant NESBs – contain(s)/ed a large measure of unwittingly-planned obsolescence, meaning that it has long since become an empty charade for the employment and empire-building of boomers).
Perhaps there is a happy middle-way here; if so, it plainly necessitates, at the very least, many more non-Chinese Australians to be acquiring the Chinese language than are presently so doing. But since there’s nothing to gain for boomers in this – unlike, say, the house-price inflation windfall that large-scale migration of the relatively cashed-up has inevitably brought – I can’t see it really happening.
In the last decade or so, Australia has become a de facto bilingual country. While English remains the predominant – and sole official, although there are cracks appearing in this policy (see below) – language, written and spoken Chinese is now more pervasive than any minority language has been since Australia’s annexation by England. (“Chinese” here is used to mean both the monoform written language and the plurality of spoken languages and dialects – while this may thus seem to necessarily require multi-lingualism, a large measure of official bilingualism does rest with the written word.)
My prompt for this post came from browsing the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission website which has (what I’m guessing is) the organisation’s name in Chinese embedded in its top banner, along with the Australian coat of arms and the ACCC’s logo. This bilingual naming of a government agency would not seem to be officially sanctioned, or even widespread. Austrade’s website, for example, does not follow the ACCC approach.
Official, mandatory bilingualism, as Canada’s case shows, can be Orwellian over-zealous and annoyingly petty at the same time. Worst of all, though, with a majority-Anglophone/minority-Francophone population split that roughly parallels Australia’s non-Chinese/Chinese numbers, three decades of the policy have seemingly hardened Francophone’s sense of a separate identity. While there are cogent reasons why the experience of Canada’s Francophones can’t be easily extrapolated to Australia’s Chinese (geography, for one: the former are highly concentrated in Quebec province), it is clear that in terms of the raison d’etre of Canadian bilingualism – bringing majority and minority together – it has been a manifest failure.
OTOH, unofficial bilingualism, as Australia is pursuing currently, seems to me to be a cop-out. I am surprised by the complete absence (AFAICT) of academic/OpEd discussion of language policy in Australia. (Another eloquent ruin of boomer policy-making: multiculturalism – largely premised on poly-lingual service delivery to marginalized first-generation migrant NESBs – contain(s)/ed a large measure of unwittingly-planned obsolescence, meaning that it has long since become an empty charade for the employment and empire-building of boomers).
Perhaps there is a happy middle-way here; if so, it plainly necessitates, at the very least, many more non-Chinese Australians to be acquiring the Chinese language than are presently so doing. But since there’s nothing to gain for boomers in this – unlike, say, the house-price inflation windfall that large-scale migration of the relatively cashed-up has inevitably brought – I can’t see it really happening.
Tuesday, February 07, 2006
Overdue generational change in the Victorian ALP
"I support generational change" says Simon Crean, "I practised it." As Labor Party leader, he says, he was responsible for bringing new blood to Labor's front bench, including Julia Gillard, Kevin Rudd, and Mark Latham.
Oh, gimme a break (again!): the above-mentioned trio are all boomers (Gillard and Latham were born in 1961), just like the Xercidal Crean himself.
But shove over, boomerpath Simon; generational change – this time actually featuring Xers – is currently on the menu, big-time, within Victorian Labor, at both state and Federal levels. Of the eight individual challenges anticipated to Labor incumbents (all boomers, and all in safe seats, I’m pretty sure), seven are by Xers (four definitely, the others I’m guessing) – and curiously enough, all eight are most definitely male.
What’s happening at state level is relatively simple: a case of the Premier anointing two favourites – one who happens to be his Chief of Staff, Tim Pallas (aged late 30s, I’m guessing), and the other dotcom millionaire and generous Labor donor, Evan Thornley (aged 40 or 41). In politics, this may not seem a particularly new narrative, but its novelty, for me, is that the installees both seem relatively old – not to mention career-established – for this kind of nepotism to be the make-or-break factor. Admittedly, Tim Pallas has had unhappy runs (narrowly and questionably defeated by pedestrian, at best, boomers) at preselection for the state seat of Kororoit and the federal seat of Melbourne Ports (PDF), but falling back onto crass boomer patronage is hardly a good look for a middle-aged Xer, if you ask me.
At Federal level, two of the six challengers (Party/union hacks Nathan Murphy and Matt Carrick) I know nothing about, but I’m guessing that they’re mid-30ish Xers (Correction 14 February 2006: Murphy and Carrick are 28 or 29). Then there’s the odd man out: Melbourne QC and boomer Mark Dreyfus (49). The remaining three are definite Xers, all between their mid-30s and 40 (and all also Party/union hacks): Martin Pakula, Bill Shorten and Richard Marles.
What’s going on, then, is a quite concerted Xer putsch. Note that this is most certainly not a “youth” push – and also remember that this is not a leadership tussle thing; it is about just getting one’s foot in the door of, at or near middle-age, a parliamentary seat. And plainly all seven Xers have already more than paid their dues as Party/union hacks, if previous generations’ lessons and graduation in Preselection for Faithful Hacks 101 (Mark Latham became the member for Werriwa at 32) are any guide.
Has something previously gone wrong with the system, then, which has lead to this seemingly-sudden eruption? Most definitely. Affirmative action in recent years – which has lead to disproportionately more Xer women being preselected (by Liberals, as well as Labor, BTW), all to replace an imbalance of boomer men – may be partly to blame. Branch-stacking (same URL) can’t be held to blame, though, as it is hardly new. Some blame, at least, must admittedly be laid at the foot of the Xer aspirants themselves – the “instead of going for a marginal seat preselection at 30, go for a safe seat at 40” game is perhaps a reckless (although characteristically Xer), all-or-nothing, short-sell ploy.
Above all, though, the Victorian ALP Xer eruption is just one illustration of a wider malaise affecting Xer men in particular. With one in seven* not even in casual or part-time work (and many more with only meager employment), it is about time we stopped being grateful for boomers’ scraps. Fuck the boomers' petulant, youthful: “We want the world and we want it now!”. Xers of the world unite: “We only want what you got given on platter, we’ve been patient long enough, and so we’re taking it now!”.
* This is extrapolating GenX (aged 30-43) as being pari passu with the wider 25-54 y.o. band. While this assumption may not be correct, the fairly standard preconception, that workforce participation among 25-54 y.o. men would run in a straight-ish, downward line, can be safely knocked on the head. Recipients of the disability support pension have a striking, counter-intuitive mini-peak among those born 1962-1965, while there are almost no DSP recipients who were born in 1960 or 1961 (Take a bow, Mark Latham). (Numbers of DSP recipients that match rates among the oldest Xers are only again reached in the 50+ age group, with those born in or before 1956).
Update 9 February 2006
Once again proving my “demographics is thicker than anything else” theory, (boomer) Julia Gillard yesterday went into bat to save the preselection of (boomer) Simon Crean from a Xer’s challenge:
Mr Crean's long history in the ALP as a minister, shadow treasurer, deputy leader and leader meant he deserved respect. "That respect should be shown in the preselection process by having Simon re-preselected and returned. Simon is now one of the important custodians of our collective and corporate memory".
If he’s such an important custodian, Julia, why not mount him in a glass box, and then place the said exhibit out of harm’s way? (Seriously, I’m sure there must be sinecures within Labor other than plain vanilla, safe-seat do-nothings.) You actually expect Xers, and particularly Xer men, to vote for a party that values "memory" above a future, and proven mediocrity against at least possible talent? Sheesh.
Further update 9 February 2006
Greg Combet (a typically clueless boomer) says re the Pakula vs Crean preselection battle: “something's gone awry here along the way and I can't quite put my finger on it”. Earth to Greg: What’s gone wrong is blindingly obvious – boomers pretending that they could run a closed-shop, bar a few token Xer women, indefinitely.
Ages for Nathan Murphy and Matt Carrick have also been corrected.
Further update 27 February 2006
Look at this hilarity from the mouth of John Button:
"Sometimes they call it renewal; sometimes they call it regeneration . . . But that can't be right because they [i.e. the Xer challengers] won't be there, if they succeed in their preselections, until after the next federal election. Now, if Labor wins the next federal election, is it in need of renewal? That is a nice question. If it doesn't win the next federal election, then they're there".
So "they" will always be there (on tap, as it were), eh John? What a moron.
"I support generational change" says Simon Crean, "I practised it." As Labor Party leader, he says, he was responsible for bringing new blood to Labor's front bench, including Julia Gillard, Kevin Rudd, and Mark Latham.
Oh, gimme a break (again!): the above-mentioned trio are all boomers (Gillard and Latham were born in 1961), just like the Xercidal Crean himself.
But shove over, boomerpath Simon; generational change – this time actually featuring Xers – is currently on the menu, big-time, within Victorian Labor, at both state and Federal levels. Of the eight individual challenges anticipated to Labor incumbents (all boomers, and all in safe seats, I’m pretty sure), seven are by Xers (four definitely, the others I’m guessing) – and curiously enough, all eight are most definitely male.
What’s happening at state level is relatively simple: a case of the Premier anointing two favourites – one who happens to be his Chief of Staff, Tim Pallas (aged late 30s, I’m guessing), and the other dotcom millionaire and generous Labor donor, Evan Thornley (aged 40 or 41). In politics, this may not seem a particularly new narrative, but its novelty, for me, is that the installees both seem relatively old – not to mention career-established – for this kind of nepotism to be the make-or-break factor. Admittedly, Tim Pallas has had unhappy runs (narrowly and questionably defeated by pedestrian, at best, boomers) at preselection for the state seat of Kororoit and the federal seat of Melbourne Ports (PDF), but falling back onto crass boomer patronage is hardly a good look for a middle-aged Xer, if you ask me.
At Federal level, two of the six challengers (Party/union hacks Nathan Murphy and Matt Carrick) I know nothing about, but I’m guessing that they’re mid-30ish Xers (Correction 14 February 2006: Murphy and Carrick are 28 or 29). Then there’s the odd man out: Melbourne QC and boomer Mark Dreyfus (49). The remaining three are definite Xers, all between their mid-30s and 40 (and all also Party/union hacks): Martin Pakula, Bill Shorten and Richard Marles.
What’s going on, then, is a quite concerted Xer putsch. Note that this is most certainly not a “youth” push – and also remember that this is not a leadership tussle thing; it is about just getting one’s foot in the door of, at or near middle-age, a parliamentary seat. And plainly all seven Xers have already more than paid their dues as Party/union hacks, if previous generations’ lessons and graduation in Preselection for Faithful Hacks 101 (Mark Latham became the member for Werriwa at 32) are any guide.
Has something previously gone wrong with the system, then, which has lead to this seemingly-sudden eruption? Most definitely. Affirmative action in recent years – which has lead to disproportionately more Xer women being preselected (by Liberals, as well as Labor, BTW), all to replace an imbalance of boomer men – may be partly to blame. Branch-stacking (same URL) can’t be held to blame, though, as it is hardly new. Some blame, at least, must admittedly be laid at the foot of the Xer aspirants themselves – the “instead of going for a marginal seat preselection at 30, go for a safe seat at 40” game is perhaps a reckless (although characteristically Xer), all-or-nothing, short-sell ploy.
Above all, though, the Victorian ALP Xer eruption is just one illustration of a wider malaise affecting Xer men in particular. With one in seven* not even in casual or part-time work (and many more with only meager employment), it is about time we stopped being grateful for boomers’ scraps. Fuck the boomers' petulant, youthful: “We want the world and we want it now!”. Xers of the world unite: “We only want what you got given on platter, we’ve been patient long enough, and so we’re taking it now!”.
* This is extrapolating GenX (aged 30-43) as being pari passu with the wider 25-54 y.o. band. While this assumption may not be correct, the fairly standard preconception, that workforce participation among 25-54 y.o. men would run in a straight-ish, downward line, can be safely knocked on the head. Recipients of the disability support pension have a striking, counter-intuitive mini-peak among those born 1962-1965, while there are almost no DSP recipients who were born in 1960 or 1961 (Take a bow, Mark Latham). (Numbers of DSP recipients that match rates among the oldest Xers are only again reached in the 50+ age group, with those born in or before 1956).
Update 9 February 2006
Once again proving my “demographics is thicker than anything else” theory, (boomer) Julia Gillard yesterday went into bat to save the preselection of (boomer) Simon Crean from a Xer’s challenge:
Mr Crean's long history in the ALP as a minister, shadow treasurer, deputy leader and leader meant he deserved respect. "That respect should be shown in the preselection process by having Simon re-preselected and returned. Simon is now one of the important custodians of our collective and corporate memory".
If he’s such an important custodian, Julia, why not mount him in a glass box, and then place the said exhibit out of harm’s way? (Seriously, I’m sure there must be sinecures within Labor other than plain vanilla, safe-seat do-nothings.) You actually expect Xers, and particularly Xer men, to vote for a party that values "memory" above a future, and proven mediocrity against at least possible talent? Sheesh.
Further update 9 February 2006
Greg Combet (a typically clueless boomer) says re the Pakula vs Crean preselection battle: “something's gone awry here along the way and I can't quite put my finger on it”. Earth to Greg: What’s gone wrong is blindingly obvious – boomers pretending that they could run a closed-shop, bar a few token Xer women, indefinitely.
Ages for Nathan Murphy and Matt Carrick have also been corrected.
Further update 27 February 2006
Look at this hilarity from the mouth of John Button:
"Sometimes they call it renewal; sometimes they call it regeneration . . . But that can't be right because they [i.e. the Xer challengers] won't be there, if they succeed in their preselections, until after the next federal election. Now, if Labor wins the next federal election, is it in need of renewal? That is a nice question. If it doesn't win the next federal election, then they're there".
So "they" will always be there (on tap, as it were), eh John? What a moron.
Monday, February 06, 2006
“Sticks and stones may break my bones” – but words can sometimes be a form of violence
Chances are that my thoughts here, inspired by the Danish cartoons controversy, aren’t particularly original. Freedom of speech is itself such a well-worn topic that any new accretion to its corpus arguably deserves an automatic litter fine (or the intellectual equivalent thereof), a la those people who put something into an already-full bin, with the new addition inevitably tumbling to the ground below. But anyway, here goes.
There are at least one hoary old, and widely accepted limit to freedom of speech: shouting "Fire!" in a crowded theatre. This particular exception seems defensible mainly because of (i) the damage to human life and limb that could otherwise result, and (ii) the limited “value” of the speech that is being suppressed. But I would prefer to combine these two into a third reason for this example being an unproblematic type of non-free speech: that it cannot be effectively counter-acted by more-and-better speech (my assumption here is that the shout of "Fire!" sets into place an irreversible and immediate panic).
Hence, I am suggesting that the best test for the justified suppression of speech is the “*practical* counter-action (by more speech)?” one.
In light of the Danish cartoons, there does seem to be a case for their never having been published on this basis. The sort of damage caused is/was likely to be immediate, and irreversible by merely more speech, such as even a prompt denunciation. Likewise, although the “value” of the speech that is being suppressed (aka the genuine literary/artistic etc exception to racial/religious vilification) is undesirably subjective in many types of case, the Danish cartoons appear to be just as pointless and juvenile shit-stirring as is setting-off a false fire alarm.
Finally, on a side-note: damage to property (and no more) is never a form of violence. The media and the Right commentariat too often get away with this one, such as at a student demonstration at Monash, where a glass door being smashed (without injury, certainly to anyone other than the demonstrating students) was inaccurately, but widely, termed “violent”. Likewise is the contentious use of this term to describe the damage to cars – and no more – in the Sydney “revenge attacks” of 12 December 2005.
Damage to property is certainly criminal, and/but it may or may not be morally justified on socio-political grounds, IMO. Never, however, is it “violent” – that is, reparation and/or punishment *can* be practically made down the track (and so pre-emptive suppression is never justified). Strange as it may sound at first, words (including images, of course) *can* be categorically “violent” (unlike property damage), as the unfortunate fall-out from the Danish cartoons shows.
Chances are that my thoughts here, inspired by the Danish cartoons controversy, aren’t particularly original. Freedom of speech is itself such a well-worn topic that any new accretion to its corpus arguably deserves an automatic litter fine (or the intellectual equivalent thereof), a la those people who put something into an already-full bin, with the new addition inevitably tumbling to the ground below. But anyway, here goes.
There are at least one hoary old, and widely accepted limit to freedom of speech: shouting "Fire!" in a crowded theatre. This particular exception seems defensible mainly because of (i) the damage to human life and limb that could otherwise result, and (ii) the limited “value” of the speech that is being suppressed. But I would prefer to combine these two into a third reason for this example being an unproblematic type of non-free speech: that it cannot be effectively counter-acted by more-and-better speech (my assumption here is that the shout of "Fire!" sets into place an irreversible and immediate panic).
Hence, I am suggesting that the best test for the justified suppression of speech is the “*practical* counter-action (by more speech)?” one.
In light of the Danish cartoons, there does seem to be a case for their never having been published on this basis. The sort of damage caused is/was likely to be immediate, and irreversible by merely more speech, such as even a prompt denunciation. Likewise, although the “value” of the speech that is being suppressed (aka the genuine literary/artistic etc exception to racial/religious vilification) is undesirably subjective in many types of case, the Danish cartoons appear to be just as pointless and juvenile shit-stirring as is setting-off a false fire alarm.
Finally, on a side-note: damage to property (and no more) is never a form of violence. The media and the Right commentariat too often get away with this one, such as at a student demonstration at Monash, where a glass door being smashed (without injury, certainly to anyone other than the demonstrating students) was inaccurately, but widely, termed “violent”. Likewise is the contentious use of this term to describe the damage to cars – and no more – in the Sydney “revenge attacks” of 12 December 2005.
Damage to property is certainly criminal, and/but it may or may not be morally justified on socio-political grounds, IMO. Never, however, is it “violent” – that is, reparation and/or punishment *can* be practically made down the track (and so pre-emptive suppression is never justified). Strange as it may sound at first, words (including images, of course) *can* be categorically “violent” (unlike property damage), as the unfortunate fall-out from the Danish cartoons shows.
