Insanity Defense

by Dillon Freed
April 13, 2011

http://www.weeklyblitz.net/1379/insanity-defense

A dozen people were killed in Kabul, Afghanistan over the past few days – because a preacher in Florida, U.S.A. burned a Koran. For perspective, the ignition of some dried ink and dead wood in the hinterlands of a peninsula of America lead to much wet blood and living flesh being sprayed over the dirt lands of Afghanistan.

How did they come to learn of the burning you ask? The bi-polar President of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, condemned it – and in so condemning gave it an enflaming gravitas.

The people killed were not Americans – though they were Western – and if not European, Western in other ways. For instance, the angry mob attacked Afghan police officers (who were Western trained and reportedly dressed likewise) and young Afghan girls at a school (a very Western notion to them). Also telling is who they helped: they pulled a man, who faked being Muslim, out of the rubble after their bomb attack. So our enemies seem to be screaming at us, contrary to those afraid of saying as much: this is a clash of civilizations.

The Hawkish Terry Jones of Dove Church is the low-IQ, lunatic preacher who performed the burning ceremony. Now, I do not like this chap, but it is interesting how the media portrayed a religious man (albeit a cracked Christian) taking aim at Islam, compared to the idea-smith of "Everybody Draw Mohammed." No need to expand on that. At any rate, do not mix my message, the fool has none of my respect and is arrantly indefensible – but you see, that is just it: this is exactly why he must be defended. It is Western Civilization 101.

Free speech comes in two models: the Miltonian and the Millian. John Milton, in his Areopagitica (which refers to the hill in Athens where men spoke and conversed freely), declared that he was against Licensing, but not Censorship. The difference being: no book could be banned ab initio by some government council or edict, but a book could be banned if, once released, it led to violence or popular angry. In analogy, Jones could burn his Koran this time – but based on the slaughters that the book inspired after the burning, he would be censored from doing it anymore hence forth under pain of imprisonment/fine if he did not abide. To Milton this was free speech with limits.

A famous verse in Milton's work which is often underlined (I bet if you read it you would underline it as well) is this: "Books are not absolutely dead things, but do contain a potency of life in them to be as active as that soul was whose progeny they are; nay they do preserve as in a vial the purest efficacy and extraction of that living intellect that bred them." Now, it is a staggeringly good bit of writing – but actually, this quote was a riot act, and not the glorious trumpeting of free expression that most take it to mean. In full context, Milton is warning that the spirits of books could lead to societal upheaval – and therefore we must watch them closely – if the spirits are inciters of violence they must be banished, put under lock and key, or executed.

Conversely, J.S. Mill, in On Liberty, makes the strongest case for absolute freedom of speech ever written. He has two points that, I think, any Western should always have at the ready in case someone questions the importance of freedom of speech. They are: first, to remember that the minority, even if it is an Orwellian minority of one, may be right and the majority wrong; and second, even if the majority is correct in their opinions, we need men who are incorrect so we have to continually hone our arguments and keep them fresh by defending those arguments. Flat-earthers, creationists, abortionists, anti-abortions, the Klu Klux Klan, Black Panthers, geocentrists, atheists, radicals, communists, etc. – in a way, all are vital to our free society.

Jones' moronic display thus makes us question what is right and decent, makes us argue about the discourse we have with different peoples, makes us inquiry into the psychology of the faithful, makes us interrogate multiculturalism, makes us think just what freedom of speech entails, engages us in an argument over the nature of religion, and much more – without this idiot, smarter and wiser people would have no tree to sharpen their claws.

Mill wrote, "He who lets the world choose his plan of life for him has need of no other faculty than that of ape-like imitation." Like it or not, Jones did not let the world choose for him – the fool acted on his own daft sense of what was necessary. And by God (note this phrase is used intentionally), and by Reason, Jones has the right to do so. No amount of threats, no amount of deaths will ever make me condemn Jones louder or even equally as loud, to those who kill because he burned a book.

Overtime, both works, On Liberty and Areopagitica, have come to stand – as they should – for the absolute right of freedom of speech – no censorship, no licensing, not any of that. And mark this: the success of America is bound, in no small part, to these works – as is the failure of other nations who have nothing similar.

The Afghans have every right to protest the burning. But we have every right to verbally attack them for being some goddamn childish. In fact, it could be argued, that morally, no one in the Western world, or anyone who values freedom, has have the right to be silent here: if others choose to resort to force when someone speaks their mind – we cannot abnegate our responsibility to fight against such oppressors and mental imperialists – we must protect what others have bequeathed to us by their blood. For instance, people such as Theo Van Gogh or all those killed during the Danish Cartoon riot – not to mention the scientists who stood up to the Church in the past, and the faithful who did not back down at the point of the sword to proclaim their faith.

But few are really attacking the hard target today – they are going for the wide target, stationed at close range. Indeed, most of the venom is being spit at Jones (not that I have a problem deluging him with toxic saliva) rather than at the men who killed because Jones set bound-paper alight. (On an aside: Jones' treatment by the media reminds me of Sarah Palin's harsh treatment in 2008 – which I did not mind at all, enjoyed frankly, but what I did mind was that there was not equally harsh treatment toward Obama).

Most of the articles on these killings spend seventh-eighths of their content condemning the non-killing, arsonist preacher, and just a tiny paragraph condemns the murdering rabble. Writing can get no worse; thinking can slow no more without stopping altogether.

In sum, those killed because of the Koran burning must be viewed one of two ways, and it is our choice how to view them: either we see them as the embodiment of a wasted life because of the unnecessary actions of a Florida pastor, or, we see them as martyrs in the War of Free Speech. I choose the latter and thereby bequeath to their lives the highest possible meaning in their deaths, and also, offer, what I believe, the very best condolences to their grieving families. And so people of the West, moderates in Islam, make no mistake: there is a war going on right now – and you are in it. Take the right side - defend the freedom of speech at all costs.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article, are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of this newspaper.

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