The department of physics, or in other words the department of measuring the differences in nature, could be the department of the nature of equality. Would the universe be a better place if we studied what we can see, instead of what we can not? I think Mr. Swift knew the foundation of ignorance is education, what about you? The question has often been asked:? Why do we have to study something we will never use?? Would a class on the proper use of a public garbage can be more beneficial than Euclid?
Many people over our human history have pointed us to where wisdom is to be found, right in front of us, not further away. We have been micro and macro measuring everything, only to take us further from the truth, something we were unfortunately taught to do.
We have a choice to make with the direction of education for our future, that is? If man has become ignorant and cruel, then perhaps a change in curriculum to what is most important and true, will enlighten, make us wise, and set us free. I was surprised and bemused when this program on the radio conflated satirical mockery of religion with satirical mockery of race perhaps a sign of confirmation bias? The Book of Mormon with all of the accolades. I would be interested in knowing if the individual suggesting 'moral satire' and discomfort with Chrlie Hebdo's cartoons would laugh or be outraged while watching mormons and Africans being demeaned in The Book of Mormon?
When one inserts the the word 'moral', they are only submitting their own personal opinion regarding what they find acceptable and what they personally think should be censored.
Tuesday, July 28, -- PM. Hi Judson! Thanks for your comments and good to "see" you here. I think you're right that satire often serves to highlight various kinds of bullshit, whether it's spoken or performed. It's an important tool for combatting all the bullshit we have to deal with.
Personally, I think politics and religion are two domains in which a lot of bullshit is dispensed, so we need satirists to draw attention to that. Or to the fact that FB was talking about creating a satire warning because so many people post fake news stories there believing them to be true and expressing their outrage. Have politcs become so ridiculous that we can no longer distinguish truth from satire?
Satire not only draws attention to the blaring issues of current affairs, but also their more subtle complexities as well. In order for a reader to get the full effect of a satirical piece's purpose, they have to read and commit to understanding not only the topic at hand, but why a seemingly small line might point out a crippling fallacy in the targeted argument just as well as its header.
It's not only that politics have become increasingly ludicrous to the point where much of satire's work is done for it, but also that satire has to work with more discretion and subtlety to be truly impactful. No wonder there's confusion over pieces like the one you linked- not only is truth becoming harder to distinguish from satire, satire is becoming harder to distinguish from truth. Of course satire should bite. But it's a question, isn't it, of a certain symmetry between biter and bitten?
If Punch pulled his punches Judy would be the one laughing, not us. Wednesday, July 29, -- PM. I think the question comes down to something like: when is it morally acceptable to be mean to others? If satire is ever morally justified, and if it necessarily has a bite, then that means we do think it can sometimes be moral to be mean whether or not we're mean in a humorous way, which is a hallmark of satire. There's been a lot of discussion recently about the American dentist Walter Palmer who killed Cecil the lion.
The online backlash against him has been huge, and justifiably so. But is there a line we as decent human beings should not cross in our criticism? Obviously, directly threatening him with violence would be to cross that line, but is joking that he should be skinned and decapitated?
It would seem that satire is by definition militant. Thus satire like any attack is only appropriate when used to point out a legitimate flaws in b a more powerful entity. Any exercise of power by the powerful over the less powerful is some kind of bullying. It is, of course, still satire. But it is also bullying. Although bullying need not be punishable by death, it need not be supported in the name of free speech, either. The question in most cases of "the ethics of humor" but not all comes down to who or what is the target of the humor in some senses, the butt of the joke.
If satirists are targeting the oppressed minority of French citizens who are Muslim, they are on very shaky ground indeed. If they are targeting Islam in general, they are on much firmer if not safer ground as satirists.
If they are targeting the Prophet peace be upon him , they are either attacking someone with infinitely more power than they have an appropriate target of satire or a foolishly revered imaginary friend arguably an appropriate target of satire, too. Surely it is not just the intention of the satirist that decides who or what the target is. Art is subjective and someone might take offense to almost anything.
However, the defense that the artist has no responsibility whatsoever for the emotions created does not seem legitimate. Artists intentionally evoke emotions and use their craft to achieve that. They must have some degree of responsibility for that conscious act. So what are these cartoons targeting? What are they ridiculing? The pope is being depicted as prostituting himself liberalizing church doctrine in order to land more customers believers.
Although I do not agree that he is doing that, I can easily see why a conservative believer would think so, and it seems like a valid point. The Muslim in the cartoon seems to be complaining that only his worst side was portrayed in the film. That is likely true. That film probably looked at the dark side of the faith as do critics of Christianity and other religions. If so, then the complaint by the Muslim in the cartoon seems quite valid.
It is not clear why we are a ridiculing his protest and b gratuitously picturing him as naked. This cartoon fails to ridicule the legitimate flaw wanting to punish non-Muslims for violating rules that only apply to Muslims , so where is its justification?
If satirists are risking their own death for a few laughs and arguably making followers think twice , I suppose that is their right It appears that Walter Palmer is a a repeat offender who b ran away instead of facing the consequences of his act and c may have been paid to do it.
If so, he certainly seems to be "fair game. Mean humor is sometimes used to reduce the impact of a problem on our psyche by "cutting it down to size. But with humans, ideally at least, satire should attack the problematic behavior or thought pattern instead of just ad hominem.
Interesting issue. Thanks Jim. I think you hit the nail on the head here with the question of how we identify the target of satire. If the satirists take themselves to be ridiculing extremist Muslims say , whereas the oppressed Muslims in France or elsewhere in Europe feel like they are being targeted, how do we decide this question?
Is there an independent fact of the matter or is it simply a matter of perspective? The answer is very important because, as you say, it it what distinguishes satire from bullying.
Thursday, July 30, -- PM. Thank you for your response. I suppose this is a little like the distinction between discriminatory intent and adverse impact in employment law. Since, in practice, we cannot know or prove someone else's intent, we are left making judgments about the reasonably foreseeable consequences of the act.
Friday, July 31, -- PM. I have come here to correct a gross miscarriage of knowledge and truth. I believe it was this episode I heard in the car. My apologies if it's not the right episode, but neither do I have the time nor patience nor willingness to spend 2 dollars an episode to determine if this is the right episode. In this episode or one within the last week, at the very end of the segment, one of the hosts or a guess grossly misrepresented my personal hero John Stuart Mill. The person was arguing for laws against the possession and distribution of cartoons that depict cartoon underage "persons" having sex.
Near the end of the show, this person stated matter-of-factly that John Stuart Mill's defense of free speech was limited to political speech. Nothing could be further from the truth. This can only be the result of willful lying or being entirely ignorant about what John Stuart Mill actually wrote. It's gross intellectual dishonesty either way - stating a clear falsehood, or inventing something out of pure ignorance. If this is a host, then shame on you host, and if I figure that out, I will be sure to avoid your program forever.
If it was a guest, you should probably never have that guest on again. I invite everyone here to read what John Stuart Mill actually wrote in the freely available essay titled "On Liberty". Use your favorite search engine of choice - I don't know the policies for including links in comments offhand.
It's out of copyright, and it's easily and freely available many places online. Sunday, August 2, -- PM. The conversation, alas, seemed limited, to defining satire as comedic speech or cartoons that are targeted at either institutions or persons or groups of individuals.
What of ideas? It is possible for an individual to change his opinions and beliefs -- as the guest stated in her invective against the political correctness that has run amok on universities, this is one of the few core functions or goals of a liberal education. Satirists and commentators not only ought to be free to criticize ideas, but they, and we, have a responsibility to do so. To allow false or pernicious ideas to persist is to allow a cancer to grow across society.
It is how conspiracy theories formulate, denials of scientific facts and results to flourish, bigotry and racism to prosper. Making ideas the subject of satire and comment means that the satirist or commentator need not pull his punches against the downtrodden -- if the downtrodden are following ideas that are detrimental, to the satirist or society or even to the downtrodden believer, then shaking him to his senses and showing him the absurdity of his beliefs is a form of education.
It attempts to correct fallacies and pernicious beliefs while they are inchoate or nascent and weak. Moreover, by attacking the ideas or beliefs and rather the individual, the satire or commentary is not bigoted.
The offended individual may be persuaded by the satire or commentary and can change his beliefs. Can stop following blindly and thereby question the authenticity and integrity of those who espoused the beliefs he had been holding. Two final points: first, if an individual finds it offensive to ridicule X, then he ought not to ridicule X. But the individual cannot impose that belief system upon others and prevent them from ridiculing X.
In the face of ridicule of X, let the offended individual respond by: i ignoring it; ii contemplating the meaning and questioning why he finds it abhorrent and beyond reprehensible; iii respond with a ridicule of the tenets of the offending satirist or commentator; or iv counter the argument and show why the satirical piece or commentary either has a logical fallacy or rests on assumptions that either do not hold where they are purported to hold, or are actually false.
In sports, art, business, politics, and academia -- and certainly other areas of life -- we set the rules to be indifferent between A and B and then let A and B have at it. The score starts , we inhibit and penalize companies from deterring competition, we allow all sorts of political speech, and publish in double-blind peer-reviewed journals. In the marketplace of ideas, there are various arenas. This Community of Thinkers is one such arena, where we can present our ideas, hold them up to scrutiny, and learn their weaknesses and strengths, thereby more legitimately holding them with greater confidence, or modifying them in response to the criticism.
Gary, I am with you on your point on bad manners not equating to terrorism. As I see it, the problem is not satire and what satire might or might not generate when targeting this or that. The problem is not whether satire is good or bad or whether satire goes after the rich or after the poor, the powerful or the oppressed. The problem is terrorism. Terrorism kills innocents not in response to a greater or lesser provocation, not due to a cartoon strengthening one?
Dissecting what satire does well and not so well in this particular context of the terrorist attack to Charlie Hebdo, which killed so many innocent people, rests uneasy for me, and I strongly oppose such an approach - no harsh level of satire can ever justify a terrorist act. Even if the Hebdo material was incendiary or targeted the marginalized, in itself another area of debate, that does not come close to a reason or justification for murdering 11 people and injuring another The prejudices are there.
I think satire as a subject of discussion is fascinating; however, it should be thought of independently from terrorist acts and hate crimes. Monday, August 3, -- PM. Some centers of conviction cannot abide shame, even where it is deserved.
To paraphrase Shakespeare, Hell hath no fury like a privilege scorned! The point being that, at least the earlier Islamic radicals were of a generation miffed at the loss of social status they experience in the West and under a globalized interconnectedness. These days Islam is in a state of Suni-Shia civil war, bringing the lower tiers of society into the mix.
It wasn't all that long ago when Western women would have been scandalized if they showed any part of their body, and in which that cartoon of the Pope would have brought death, just as surely as Hebdo did with the one of Mohamed.
Incidentally, I don't remember if anyone has yet applauded the moderators for having the guts to posts these cartoons. But the issue stands, how do we get the shameful to respond to our recognition of it? Satire is mischief, not violence. But it is, if appropriate, in response to a kind of mischief not so non-violent. This breaks down into domestic and foreign or enemy. But this means that even the most iconic expression of who we are has a kind of violent mischief to it, deserving a bit of shaming.
To sully corrode or efface even the most sacred icon amongst us can be an expression of greater intimacy among us than that icon, in the hands of its most fervent promoters, can ever hope to inspire. Domesticity is in itself a kind of mischief, and unless we are free to profane it a bit we will end up strangers to each other in the very reverence of the icon of it.
Domestic sarcasm brings us closer. The key to this is that the shamed be so intimate to us that we can recognize the profaning of it as necessary to its intrinsic violence against us. This is why symbols can be so pernicious.
But what about shaming the shameless? Or the enemy that can only react violently? It cannot bring us together except as a kind of violence of its own.
And the implacably shameless can set us on a course of escalation that has no easy resolution. There is no answer I can see to domestic power centers that simply refuse to see how deserved the criticism is, and who simply use their power to thwart the effect. But with external regimes of such resistance to rebukes, the resolution, it seems to me, is one of domestication, not escalation. That is, we should help each other see the joke.
And that it is intended to bring us together, not inspire violence. A magazine like Hebdo's does have a bit of blame to accept. And that is that when a periodical like this takes upon itself the regular business of ridicule, in order to keep the pages full it must keep up its supply of targets. The danger can only increase of undeserved insult, and escalation looms as a tempting tactic where imagination, or deserving targets, thin out.
Friday, March 16, -- AM. I have no connection either with anyone Muslim, so I would have to do a lot of research to even begin to grasp the enormity of the problem.
I am not that moved by any sort of religious philosophy or dogma, so this is one area of research I shall forego. I am working on some ideas of my own philosophically and that takes up a great deal of mind space and creativity. Sadly, the world as we have come to know it, encompasses a Totality of Circumstances, including a cultural war which has erupted into bloody war.
Would there have been a bloody attack on Charlie and its satire without Rushdie; free-speech; women's rights; wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and a host of other historical influences? Maybe yes and maybe no. But, I think we have to at least speculate that the impetus for such attack was spurred by those sorts of influences.
We magnify the complexities of the world and thereby generate potentials for unpredictable outcomes. Occasionally, we know what we are doing; recognize the perils; and do it anyway.
That might be construed as degeneracy, or at mildest, stupidity. Sometimes it is called politicswhich may be much worse Sunday, March 18, -- AM. The point that I think was missed on the program with respect to free speech is how to deal with institutions that institutionally forbid disrespecting a symbol.
The Muslim religion is the current whipping boy on this with their attachments to symbols representing Muhammad and also printed copies of the Quaran. The US government isn't even clear about this with respect to flag burning. With respect to John Perry's issue of whether some speech is "moral" I believe he missed the point.
It has long been my view that invoking Hitler or a swastika in an argument is plain not productive to any argument about anything else. The same with the "N" word. Its use throws any discussion off the rails and thus is a bad idea.
Tuesday, March 20, -- PM. I only got half the show today on KALW, but I was surprised that no one came at the question from a developmental point of view.
As a child, I was relentlessly targeted for aggressive, mocking attacks. As someone of mixed cultural background, I am aware that not everywhere on the planet are school yards run on the law of the jungle.
Some places, people are taught manners. These attacks were meant to be destructive, and they were. To this day, I am really not clear if the natives think of this as ok, allowing these destructive forces to run wild.
So to get the the point, is this a matter of the "free speech" of children? If not, at what point in development does this kind of behavior become such? As an adult, I no longer allow anyone to have this kind of power over me, but when I see people like those at Charlie Hebdo, I am clear that these are the aggressive bullies of the school yard who never grew up and who never learned basic respect.
Please note that the distinction between attacking the person and attacking a symbol or institution is not such a simple one when we are discussing in a developmental context.
The constitution of an "I" is always in relation to such symbols. If I had been Muslim, for example, attacking Islam would be, to a child, like attacking me. Also note that this distinction is perhaps not such a simple one when discussing in a cultural context. The local notion of adult development does not leave room for such powerful identifications with and connections to such symbols of group affiliation.
We are supposed to become the "Individuals" of "Individualist Society". Perhaps that itself is a rather provincial attitude.
Skip to main content. Search form Search. The Power and Perils of Satire. Laura Maguire. As you can see, Charlie Hebdo does not hold back. The Power and Peril of Satire. Philosophy Through Humor Jul 22, Why did Nietzsche cross the road? Post-Truth Politics Sep 10, You've probably heard about the dangerous effects of fake news, and the spread of sensational and targeted falsities.
The Science of Humor Feb 28, Being funny isn't easy. Forbidden Words Oct 21, Blog Archive October Persons, Community, and the Akan. Why Is Math So Useful? On Awesomeness. Is Facebook Morally Responsible? Microaggressions and Intention. The Slow Miracles of Thought. Literary Minds. Summer Dylan Reading. Unnecessary Necessities. The Philosophy of the Vienna Circle.
Cracking Down on Disinformation. What Montaigne Knew. Is Meritocracy Possible? A Solution. What Makes A Man? Replacing Freud. What Tech Says. The Mathematics of Democracy. When Do False Beliefs Exculpate? Gaining Knowledge without Learning. December The Year in Poetry. Finding Minds in a Material World. Should the Arts Be for All? Whose Fault Is It Anyway? Why We Argue About Fiction. Why Games Matter. Reasons to Hate. Abortion and Humanity. Skepticism and Trust in Science. Philosophy for the Apocalypse.
Who Gets to be a Citizen? Does Meritocracy Have Merit? Discriminating Streets. Abortion and Dehumanization. On Jerks and Ethicists. A Cat's Life. The Value of Metaphor in a Pandemic. Benjamin and Modern Enchantment. The Ethics of Pet Keeping. Celebrating Our th Episode. Covid and the Veil of Ignorance.
Your Racist Mental Habits. Demonizing Black Men. Listener Covidundrums. Puzzle 3: Kant on Lying to Robots. Can Philosophy Help in a Crisis? Narrative Burnout. A Pandemic of Dreams. More Money Matters.
FrancisOnFilm: Crip Camp. Money Matters. Proust and Social Distance. Puzzle 2: What is an Identity? Philosophy and the Superhero. Trying to Let Go of the Past. Thinking and Mental Action. Puzzle 1: Are Beliefs Voluntary? Viral Xenophobia. Sorry, Critics: Parasite is a Good Movie. Anti-Sacred Spaces. Is the Self Real? FrancisOnFilm: Dionysus for Docs. Rough Humor. Comedy on the Edges. What the Future Holds. How Much Thought Is Inactive? A Tribute to Ken Taylor.
Nonhuman Persons, Nonhuman Rights. Francis-on-Film: Parasite. Sanctuary Cities. Part II. Hobbes and the Absolute State.
Real Horror. Machine Consciousness. FrancisOnFilm: Downton Abbey. Should We Trust Polls? The Appeal of Authoritarianism. Music as a Way of Knowing. Explanation at Its Best. What's In a Picture? Changing Minds on Climate Change. Against Introspection. Self Knowledge on Trial.
The Doomsday Doctrine. A Simple Test for Fake News. Postmodernism: The Decline of Truth. How to Think Two Thoughts at Once. JS Mill and the Good Life. Letting Go of Human Nature. Tolerance and Radical Disagreement. A Licentious Lannister? Working for Faith.
What Is Reading? Anti-Semitism is Racism. FrancisOnFilm: Shazam! Philanthropy vs. Authority and Resistance. Wanting to Want for Its Own Sake. Hacking Our Sense Perceptions. Sexy Beasts. Ken's Big Announcement. FrancisOnFilm: Green Book.
Your Question: Integrate or Assimilate? Controversy About Climate Denial. Immigration and Multiculturalism. Mind the Gaps! FrancisOnFilm: Minding the Gap. Five Types of Climate Change Deniers. Finding Yourself in a Virtual Fiction. FrancisOnFilm: Aquaman. The Puzzle of the Unconscious. Is Envy Always a Vice? FrancisOnFilm: Brexit. Getting Clear on the Replication Crisis.
How Not to Fall Asleep. Freud's Philosophical Challenges. December The Examined Year: — Uncut. On Morally Condemning the Past. Philosophical Freud. Foucault on Power. The Creative Life. Does Reputation Matter? Anti-Semitism The Wrong Abortion Question. How MeToo Helps Men. Can Reason Save Us? The Philosophy of Westworld.
Do They Believe in God? The Psychology of Cruelty. Lessons from Lobsters. Athletics and the Philosophical Life. Should Algorithms Decide? Failing Successfully.
FrancisOnFilm: Mission Impossible. But quality satire does not just scrutinise and ridicule the great and the good. It helps engage those who otherwise find politics tedious. Politics can be made fun, raucous and appealing at least for those not on the receiving end of it. But while Ed Miliband is routinely mocked by many newspapers, Nigel Farage and David Cameron have largely escaped such treatment in most of the press.
It is all too often those at the bottom of society who are demonised and derided. Where is the scrutinising — and yes, ridiculing — of the poverty-paying bosses, the tax dodgers, or the bankers responsible for economic disaster? Satire can be brilliantly effective at encouraging us to challenge the way our society is run.
It is a more crucial element of our democracy than we perhaps think, and we should fight to bring it back to the prime-time slots it deserves. This article is more than 6 years old. Owen Jones. Topics UK news Opinion Protest comment. From mad men in Iran issuing Fatwas on Rushdie even without reading the book, to stupid protests by uneducated illiterate people to mass murder by illiterate stupid wahabi salafist Arabs, you have shown that making fun of people is a no-no.
Christians do not go issue Fatwas or commit mass murder when Jesus is made fun of or even called gay.
Lighten up. Some you Buddhists are the same; thinking Buddha is a god and becoming hysterical. We know about Jesus. I have read the Bible and I have gone to bible classes and to christian retreats.
He argues that fructose too much and fiber not enough appear to be cornerstones of the obesity epidemic through their effects on insulin. An incredible ability to identify the Achilles heel of an individual or group paves the way to make the perfect satire. The imam preaches at the same mosque that saw three young radicalized jihadists leave the UK for Syria.
Hammuda is officially known as an English Islamic Programmes officer. He still preaches at the Al-Manar mosque, two years after three of its young members traveled to Syria to fight for terrorist organizations. A secret recording a Koran study group was made by undercover reporter Rizwan Syed, who sent a copy to the Daily Mail.
The tape was part of an investigation into jihadism by the company Hardcash Productions. It was made in October There are a lot of confusing messages delivered by Hammuda, but what mostly shocked the British public about his sermons, is his interpretation of Hadiths, particularly ones concerning to slavery. Actually you are acting like a born again as a cat on hot bricks. This is exactly what you are.. Sit down ,take your medicine what your Psychatrist has prescribed you and then read what he is trying to day.
He is talking of Sri Lanka and about political satire. Welawata beheth gannawa. Ex- Angoda. Why go out of point? Whatever the article says, all you have in mind is Muslim hatred and then you vomit that stuff out. It is hightime you take your medicines on time.
First review all the text books from kindergarten to undergrad studies and identify the matters which hurt the communities. This is the 21st century. But those words are no longer accepted in the public sphere. It is wrong and offensive to call people racially disparaging names. There should be panels of people of all races and religions guiding Sri Lankan not to use hurtful phrases to insult people. So people have gone on to use more subtle words or actually have reformed.
Not sure why racial insults or derogatory terms are so common in Sri Lanka. But the real danger to the world is intolerant radical Islamic Jihadism.
We saw in Bangladesh where kids from well to do families were driven by hateful brainwashing by Wahabis murdering innocent people in the name of religion. Throughout christian liberal Europe there is a backlash against open borders that allowed savage Arabs to flood Europe along with real innocent refugees.
They molest women and they commit acts of terror. ISIS rapes women, takes sex slaves, uses the Quaran and Hadith to justify their savagery in the 21st century. Every month more a nd more women are wearing black abayas and full facial masks. Every month more and more are copying Arabs not the same as Muslim and males are copying Arab clothing. Please get together and act now before it is too late and you bring in ISIS Terrorism to a secular nation. Bring out the rational scientific person in you.
The challenge for satire in our glorious sun-drenched island paradise is that most people would not recognise satire even if dashed up and bit them on the cheek of their arse. I sincerely hope majority of CT readers agree with the points you raised in your satire above, and spread the essence in your satire and convince the majority of the citizens and the Sangha1 to take the right path. After reading this article Indonesian jihadists started satire technique burning down six Buddhists temples.
0コメント