idiocy loves company

at the very least its good to know that Americans dont have a monopoly on stumping for intolerance. this article discusses how Europe, especially Denmark, seems to struggle with Islam. what i am about to say will make a lot more sense if you take a look at that first.

first the insulting Mohamed cartoons. now a whole movie on intolerance that includes such cartoons. it seems that Denmark and Europe at large are having trouble with Islam. it is perhaps, as is mentioned in the article, that Europe has become largely secular. without a strong faith of their own, many Europeans may struggle with the way that Muslims feel when they see such things.

Danes cling strongly to free speech and i dont blame them. Muslims decry the publishing of material that insults their beleifs on more than one front, and they too have a good point.

freedom of speech is essential to keeping a free and open discussion which is essential to a free and open society. but the abuse of this core freedom can make others feel less free. its like a your mama joke spiraling into a fight into a high school lunch room. i have seen it happen. violence erupts over stupidity. just because you can insult people doesnt mean that you should.

at many points i could call people i work with pricks, but i dont. they could probably say nasty things about me as well, but they dont. you act with a certain degree of decorum because in reality we share the world of construction and will end up working together again. we cant have the bad blood between us because it obstructs the greater goal of completing a project.

in the same way, the people of the world need to get along. we need to bite our tongues at times for the sake of each other's feelings. we all have to share this world and it becomes increasingly difficult if we go around insulting each other's core beleifs.

the reality is that Muslims are not inherently evil. nor are Danes. sure some are evil, some are stupid, some even have a pulpit and a hate to spew. theres Geert Wilders and Osama bin-Laden. but there are those who dont spew hate. the Dali Lama embodies the ability to hold close what he believes all the while embracing those who have different views.

i dont think that we will ever be able to shut up the village idiot. what we need to do is realize that the village idiot doesnt not speak for the village. bin-Laden does not speak for all of Islam just like Wilders does not speak for all of Denmark or Europe. the reality is that both Wilders and bin-Laden are doing what they think is right to protect their views. neither are right in their actions and neither speaks for the larger group to which they are associated.

free speech needs to be used to have an open discussion, not to fan the flames of ignorance or insult people. if we all figured that out i think we would be better off.