I'm not convinced that Charlie Hebdo magazine meets the criteria of what satire is by definition. Religious belief is not stupidity - though there are some very stupid religious beliefs out there - nor is religious belief of itself a vice or an evil. Neither am I convinced there was any genuine humour, or irony, or even exaggeration in Charlie Hebdo's cartoons. It seems there was plenty of malice employed in Charlie Hebdo's work, a desire to cause great offence and shock for the sake of it, a desire to be provocative and hurt the sensibilities of the religious.
I think people are getting confused between satire - which by its use of humour and irony exposes stupidity - and blasphemy, which simply mocks God and religion. Satire is entertaining and enlightening because it can also be edifying. Satire, when done correctly, doesn't simply run people - or people's beliefs - down for the sake of it, in order to be gratuitously offensive, but instead uses humour to tell the truth.
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| This is one of the lighter front covers. |
Satire is a humourous tool in the service of the truth. Private Eye's great success was built on its ability to tell the truth in a funny way. It is not a tool simply used to be offensive for the sake of being offensive without some reference to the truth. Truth is at the heart of what satire is. Charlie Hebdo's cartoon didn't have any respect for religion, God or truth. It didn't expose vice or stupidity, but instead ridiculed those who believe.
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| When satire isn't necessary: Political leaders show their citizens how to behave at a funeral |
I agree with Faith in Our Families. Now that David Cameron has guaranteed your freedom of speech, without fear you can proclaim marriage to be between a man and a woman, fornication and homosexual acts to be gravely evil, proclaim 'same-sex marriage' to be contrary to the natural law, gay adoption to be an abuse of the child, you can denounce the sexual immorality of the age, rail against the scourge of Freemasonry, declare abortion to be the murder of the innocent unborn and declare salvation to be found only in the Catholic Church.
With all that said, may God bring peace to France and eternal rest to the victims of this barbaric act of murder, justification for which there can be none.
Speaking of satire it is high time you corrected your bosh Latin. 'Adservo tranquilla' does not mean 'Keep calm,' as you seem to think.
ReplyDeleteThis must be catching, as 'Illuminatiam' is also illiterate Latin.
I have looked at the Popes insults book and I am sorry to say I think you may have a form of spiritual autism.
ReplyDeleteI have no idea what spiritual autism may be. Perhaps you have it? Or is this just a gratuitous insult? I am not wanting to insult you, merely wishing that you could learn what is correct Latin: how is that austistic?
ReplyDeleteThose who are devoted to Latin know that is a very subtle and expressive language, so cannot help wincing when it is misused.
Such people need to get out more.
ReplyDeleteNot sure why you're resorting to insult in response to a polite and reasonable statement. You might just as well write "Keepus calmus" for all the resemblance it bears to Latin. In fact that would probably be better, in that it would at least convey the sense of what was intended.
ReplyDeleteThe French are bleating about freedom (which they discovered 550 years after Magna Carta): freedom to mock those stupid religious people, of course, France being a profoundly secular state. But as you suggest, Bones, try wearing a religious symbol on your person, try exposing the human frailties of their politicians (like the editor of Paris Match who was sacked by his owner for daring to publish a story about Sarkozy without Sarkozy’s permission); or try saying that a man cannot marry a man - and you are going to see just how far freedom will stretch in modern France.
ReplyDeleteGood post Laurence, thank you. I had exactly the same thoughts as yourself when I read/heard David Cameron's remarksa on freedom of speech. Is that man ever sincere in what he says, or if he is, does he ever think before he opens his mouth?
ReplyDeleteThis is a very balanced and informative article. thanks for it, bones.
ReplyDeleteThank you for this post.
ReplyDeleteAre you hoping that freedom of speech mean the end of political correctness?
ReplyDeleteTo my mind, the real lesson for all of mankind to reflect on following the Charlie Hebdo horror is this:
ReplyDelete"'Or do you suppose that those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them were worse culprits than all the men who live in Jerusalem? 'I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish'." Luke 13:4-5
From a sudden, violent, unexpected, and unprovided death, may Jesus deliver us all!
The Daily Telegraph, online, has an article by Norman Tebbit agreeing with your opinions on this, and mine.
ReplyDeleteThank you for speaking the obvious (to those not brainwashed) truth. People accept the non-stop scripted and tightly-controlled propaganda from the monolithic MSM. There is no journalism in the MSM. True journalism is not permitted, and those who attempt it are persecuted.
ReplyDeleteThank you for this post. I agree with you entirely.
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