Understanding, by Martha Thomases – Brilliant Disguise | @MDWorld

January 17, 2015 Martha Thomases 4 Comments

One of the things I do when I write, especially about something that is foreign to me, is try to find examples in my own landscape so that I might relate more easily.

And, at the same time, as someone with far too much time available for navel-gazing, I notice that what provokes my outrage the most are things I see in others that I don’t like in myself.  If you ever hear me criticizing the way another woman is squeezed into her jeans, you can bet I’m feeling fat.  If I’m ranting about the thoughtless values of someone with more money than taste, the chances are that I just bought cashmere yarn for a sweater I won’t knit in this decade.

 

There have been several times when I’ve compared the behavior of one set of extreme religious fundamentalists to another.  Are Muslims killing cartoonists?  That sucks.  But did you know that in Israel, they jailed a Palestinian cartoonist?

If I had to choose, I would rather be in jail than dead.  I do not mean to say that the Israeli government that jailed the cartoonist is the moral equivalent of Al Qaeda in Yemen.  Rather, my point is that when confronted with something they deem to be threatening, the Israeli government lashes out, just like Al Qaeda does.  The impulse is the same, even though the response is more tempered.  Both want to suppress speech they find rebellious.

In France, where millions just marched to defend free speech, including the heads of the French government, the French government just jailed a comedian for expressing his opinions.  I find his opinions distasteful.  Most likely, I wouldn’t pay to see him perform.  Under certain circumstances, I might demonstrate outside a place where he performed, not to object to his right to speak, but to disagree with what he said.  I suspect I would not, in fact, actually do that because then I would have to put on pants.

In our own country, a man who may be a lunatic extremist but who was also an elected member of Congress declared that because he is such a strong supporter of free speech, he would be delighted to see people who disagreed with him beheaded by opponents of free speech.  Or something.  I confess I have trouble following his logic.

At this time in history, we see a lot of examples of Muslim extremism.  Sometimes, this extremism is exhibited by one of our allies to violently suppress free speech. These same “allies” are taking women to court for the “terrorist” act of driving cars.

Sometimes, it manifests as the violent repression of human sexuality, especially if those expressions threaten heterosexual men.  Again, this is a more extreme response to the same impulses we see here in the States by our own (yes, more moderate) fundamentalists towards those who want to enjoy their bodies in ways that don’t necessarily result in babies.

And then there is scariness that is just batshit tribalism. Boko Haram may wrap themselves in the Koran, but they are thugs and gangsters.  I can’t think of a parallel organization in this country (thank the Goddess), but I have a hunch that we didn’t hear about the slaughter of 2000 Nigerians because it happened at the same time and they were deemed to be less photogenic than the French victims.

Monday we celebrate the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr..  I have to believe that, if he was still with us, he would be at the forefront of denouncing terrorism.  And he would be criticizing the flag-waving media with his next breath.

Martha Thomases, Media Goddess, may put on pants to go see Selma to find out if it matches her memories.