Comments on: Fitna – Yeah, that “anti-islamic/anti-muslim” dutch movie

By: Beth

Beth — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 12:42:22 +0000

I think my point was that there is so many ways in which our free speech IS abridged.

And personally, I don’t think that the Dutch film-maker’s free speech is like mine as a Hungarian Romanian in Romania. I mean, I don’t think there is such a thing as “our” free speech. Us – who? World citizens? Well, it is highly problematic because not everyone lives in a ‘world’ – the imagined (global) political community if you want – to exercise such rights to begin with. And even if we do live in ‘free’ countries, our free speeches are abridged in different ways in different places.

the hypocrisy has been around for ever. I kept thinking the other day how recent political science is, whereas politics has been around ever since cogent creatures have been. I’d say even apes make politics because there is a sense of governance among them. There is some social order one way or another. Hypocrisy is as old as humanity. Just like with everything else, it is more invasive and in your face.

I understand your state of mind/heart. However, I’d relax and try to challenge it and see the ‘ways’ in which it is new, cos the very things is as old as walking humans. And forget about it … Amsterdam is cool, but there are so many other cool places too. Without the weed of course …

So sorry about that loss

By: cigquitter

cigquitter — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 12:32:27 +0000

I’m branching out what can I say.
“..chill out and think of..”
I am not the kind of person to be that chilled and think about such things. And I think yes. It affects a lot in the long run, and in the short run not the marketability but the spending. Here’s a simple example: no more company paid trip to Amsterdam in the next few months. In the long run it affects free speech. And all in all I hate the hypocrisy happening right now.

By: Beth

Beth — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 12:20:48 +0000

So I don’t understand the relevance of this entry to the quitting of smoking, but great food for thought.

Also, I am not sure where you stand. I understand that one of your points IS how crap it is that western people’s free speech is being abridged. That another is that big-money media works by simplistic logics and it is offensive to imagine that it is trying to approach US, smart beasts who can add 2 and 2 together, in such a simplistic way …

But these are parts of a social status quo. We know, because we are smart beasts who can put two and two together, that making films about the Q’uran and about people who are Muslim and who blow themselves up, and who by a more or less widely accepted consensus are called terrorists is not politically correct. That authority figures will use authoritarian means to deal with it …

But I don’t think that the equation here is free speech films critical of the Q’uran and Muslim self-destructive individuals. The more there is of one, the more there is of the other and somehow, media and authority figures have the power to alter that equation. I think the equation is rather the degrees to which we play into constructing this type of understanding, pay attention to it, talk about it, try to comprehend it.

I don’t watch teevee and my life is all college readings and papers. I fancy myself smart and well-prepared. I know I am not well-informed. But watching stories like this doesn’t make me well-informed. Think about it. Does the NATO affect the marketability of your company, which is probably the most important element in your life? Does that Dutch film affect fertility rates in Romania, what i am interested in? NO. It does not … And so if it doesn’t, chill out and think of other, nicer things that don’t affect your life … Like how young eastern European women are got pregnant and when they start getting a little pregnant belly, are shipped to Spain as prostitutes. Or what flowers are in bloom at Belis or the ways in which the sunsets have been changing over the past few weeks as spring is wearing on …