The Importance of Being Offended

Try to remember being told that Santa Claus is fictional. Up until that point, each year, you had taken seriously the tally of your good deeds in hope of a bigger, better, gift-wrapped reward. But now the spell is broken, there was no fat man squeezing down the chimney with Transformers in tow. You’re furious, face red as a beetroot, at being tricked. Now pair this simple truth, your bald-faced anger in the face of contradiction, with the equally evident truth that you carry around many, many more false ideas at the age of 12 (and to this day) than just Santa’s existence.

There is something beautiful about our childhood state of ignorance but it has nothing to do with the fantasies which we are endowed with. Once confronted, however softly, with the true state of affairs we undergo the stages of intellectual progress in an irrevocable way. Yes, we feel anger and probably deny for some time that our cookies and milk were in vain but the mental cogs turn clockwise. Just think of how many adults you know who underwent this startling revelation but STILL believe in Santa Claus? Seriously, let me know if you do, I've got a Pegasus for sale.

Ironically, in adulthood, it is this state of anger at new and wrenching ideas that raises the drawbridge and floods the moat. The first, unavoidable, stage in considering new ideas or modifying old ones puts us in an emergency shutdown. “Offense” is quickly taken and not recognized as the collision of your pre-existing ideas with new, opposing thoughts. Before long the message is doused in anti-inflammatory political correctness so our own insecurity can bathe in its own reflection.

But all this is build-up to the truly weird, mystifying and self-deluding idea I want to address: we are not only “offended” at ideas which oppose our own, but, with enough prickly practice, are “offended” by ideas which could “offend” anyone else. This is truly bizarre and I will prove my point but, first, read that again.

My first example involves the talk show host Bill Maher. If you’re unfamiliar with him I suggest you look up an episode. Every show I’ve seen tackles a controversial topic and brings together opposing views, as any good news show should. The Reverent Al Sharpton often joins the irreverent Salman Rushdie (author of possibly the most “offensive” book ever: the Satanic Verses) for panel discussions. Maher’s views are well known, he is opposed to religious stupidity and argues that Islam, in particular, is a source of strife in the world today.

Following Mr. Maher’s invitation to give the commencement speech at the University of California at Berkeley, it was not only the Islamic student organizations that protested but also the Atheists on campus. Ponder that a moment, Atheist groups which probably draw on Mr. Maher’s criticism of Christianity and other silly beliefs were so “offended” by his views on Islam they refused to hear him speak. Thankfully this idiotic, bizarre allegiance between the overly-religious and irreligious was put down and Mr. Maher spoke on December 22, 2014. See it here. Other intelligent, brilliant speakers like Ayaan Hirsi Ali have not been afforded the same prevailing of common sense and been turned away.

Likewise, following the murder of Charlie Hebdo cartoonists in Paris for “offense caused”, embargos by Muslim-majority countries on Denmark for “offensive” cartoons, the killing of Theo Van Gogh for a film about women in Islam, the 27-year long death threat on author Salman Rushdie (and on and on…), the focus has skimmed past the outrageous behavior of religiously-inspired murder and quickly turned to the backlash on Muslim communities and anti-Muslim (so-called “Islamophobia”) protests.

Let’s consider why this is so unbelievable:

1. No Muslims have been killed in the protests following any of the above murders or threats. In fact, the only Muslims who did die were involved in protests against the cartoons organized in dozens of supposedly moderate Muslim-majority countries across the world. Clearly European protection of minority communities is not in question so why the undue scrutiny?
2. Freedom of speech is a pivotal right at the very heart of past European revolutions and been defended to the death from fascists and religious thugs. And yet, when it comes to yet another thuggish religion in the 21^st century, suddenly it has been silenced.
3. An undeniable portion of Muslims around the world hate what is being done in their religion’s name. Those who are willing to speak up, like Maajid Nawaz of the Quilliam foundation, want to reform Islam from the inside by diluting the power of Wahhabi teachings and violent Quranic verses. Who are liberals, atheists and other vicarious offense-takers to stand in the way of a wanted, budding Islamic reformation?
4. The fallacy of blaming the victim. In MOST cases, as I’ve argued before, it is the cartoonists, the authors and the ex-Muslims speaking or depicting freely that are blamed for their own murders or threats on their lives. These (truly offensive) remarks are often made by other religious leaders (the Catholic Church has a peculiarly honed sense of “offense”, considering religious conversion is a zero-sum game!). I have been told personally that the cartoonists were “asking for it” and seen it stressed that the magazine is racist (when in fact it is a left-leaning, anti-racism publication) as if to justify the murders.

As we were when children, “offense” at mere ideas should never shut down our willingness to entertain new and enthralling thoughts. The defenses we put up against real and imagined contradictions only make us swing to a polar opposite state, as anti-immigrant protests in Europe prove, damaging our global community and robbing the world of our opinions.

Issues like Islamic terrorism, Islamic State and the murder of practitioners of freedom of speech can never be dealt with by a prickly, misinformed sense of pseudo-multicultural pity. Ideas are not people, they can and should be addressed truthfully and insulted if based on incredulous lies. There is no harm in insulting an idea, nobody gets hurt and we are all free to respond with ideas of our own.

P.S. No Santa believers were intentionally offended by these views. If “offended” please call the national UFO, Yeti and Easter Bunny helpline: 1-800-BULL-SHIT.


Citation:
Santa image. http://www.search-best-cartoon.com/cartoon-santa/cartoon-santa-00.jpg