When is a cartoon not a cartoon?

It's hard to ignore the recent insanity caused by a cartoon. Just goes to show that art can be provocative stuff...

While it's been amusing to watch irony-free protesters freely parading placards with slogans like "To hell with free speech!", it's frustrating to see others threatening the "next 9/11" while protesting about a cartoon that has insensitively and inaccurately linked an entire religion to terrorism. Is it just me, or do these squabbles take you back to the playground?

And amid the hand-wringing about "responsible free speech" and "cultural misunderstandings", few people are asking the question, "When is beheading ever a rational response to anything?" - whether it be a cartoon or another beheading. It's hardly the route most likely to open up negotiations, is it? Primarily because you're now negotiating with a headless corpse.

No one seems to be asking the question, "When is beheading ever a rational response to anything?" What really gets us though is how the radical elements on all sides exploit this comprehension divide and deliberately escalate it beyond its importance. Suddenly this incident becomes: the latest recruitment tool for would-be terrorists/ the latest reason to sign up and blow them terrorists to kingdom come/ the latest proof that Muslims are taking over the world/ the latest proof that Jews/Christians/Infidels are taking over the world/ fuel for whatever paranoid theory you sign up to.

So what have we learnt today, class? Extremism in all forms is misinformed, dangerous and regressive. Personally, I think the only way to stamp out extremism, is through an extremist approach: abolish all religion and dissolve all borders. There, everyone happy.

In other news, we've just discovered the amazing blog search engine, Technorati. This is a link to claim we own this blog so they can index us: Technorati Profile.

Posted by TerrorBull Games on 6 February 2006 - 0 comments