Friday 9 January 2015

explanatory proposition, fusion paranoia or cui bono?

Not that it matters much, but the latest subject of controversial satire in the making was in fact not Muslims but rather Islamophobia itself—nor that no institution was considered sacrosanct and off-limits to ridicule, but this calming and thoughtful reflection from the editorial staff of Boing Boing came across as another neglected spot of truth and clear-thinking.
While I do not think that it is anyone’s intent to correlate civic disengagement with religiosity or that caring about politics and faith excludes cohabitation and that secular sentiments only can make a good citoyen, it is worthy to note how fast-paced and frenetic events cause people on any side to loose their skeptical inner-voice and forget that people lie and lie often in public forums. France is the host and home of probably the least radicalised elements in all of western Europe, yet we all subscribe to the trickery of pundits and martyrs willing, whereas in a more refined venue, doubt would run rampant. Without risking running a-fringe, which shuts down more reachingly creative theories, such a retreat to a safe middle distance also risks empowering that same group of believers, who manufacture crises to exploit. Such thinking, almost superstitiously, cedes power to thuggish interests by legitmising the power and influence of the caliphate but also of every other boogey man that feeds off fears and derision and oversees the surrender of freedoms and privacy. Conspiratorial thinking is not aways on target but still provides a good and robust way to gauge the patterns of our conclusions.