GOOD MORNING AND HOW IS THE MIND TODAY? I AM NOT CHARLIE HEBDO Faizal Dawjees article in the Cape Times of today (15 Jan 2014) on the Charlie Hebdo incident and the spurious misuse of the freedom of speech notion in correlation thereto, raises valid concerns about the selective morality and political expedience that often characterises public perception and media discourse around the notion. In this regard Dawjee argues: Freedom of speech is an instrument of power. Those in power and those able to leverage the instruments of power, whether in the US, Britain or France, determine policy and narratives. Those without power struggle on the margins of society, scraping together an existence forged in the heat of Mediterranean migration. To beat down marginalised communities , especially Arabs and Africans under the guise of free speech, with the hammer of derision and bigotry, is not an act of courage but a wanton demonstration of cravenness. After looking critically at Charlie Hebdo cartoons, untainted by the distracting post incident mainstream media political hype, I agree with Dawjee. However, whether real freedom of speech can ever be achieved in a society where class, elite or sectional interests underpin the power relations that come with private ownership of the means of public communication, is another matter entirely. In such a society the notion of freedom of speech, much like that other media myth called objectivity, is pure expedient sophistry. Raymond Williams once commented: when in doubt, the Englishman thinks about a pendulum. Faced with the poors view of history as for the most part wretchedness and adversity, the liberal reaches instinctively to trim the balance: hasnt there also been a great deal of splendor and value? Indeed there has; but to claim that the two balance each other out is surely to falsify. Even-handedness here is not in the service of objectivity. True judiciousness means taking sides. So I, as an idealistic act of freedom of speech, judiciously take sides and declare that I am not Charlie Hebdo.
Posted on: Thu, 15 Jan 2015 05:20:59 +0000
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