Within an hour of hearing about the Charlie Hebdo massacre I had found out that the only person I know in Paris was safe and sound. She had taught me something about French culture that I had not known before. Cartoons, graphic novels, manga and anime are very highly regarded, if not revered, in France . This is a tradition that goes back decades and I decided to refresh my memory about it and especially the recent history of the Charlie Hebdo magazine. This included looking at several articles which had examples of their cartoons and I could not understand why they were affecting me so.
Days later it hit me – I had seen a cartoon of a Muslim drawn with a hideous and massive hooked nose and the memories came flooding back of the first time I had been called a hook-nose. I was about eight at the time, had no Jewish blood in me and for the life of me could not see any hookiness . But I was bullied relentlessly for the first dozen years of my life – for being a poof, a ponce, being able to read – and with hindsight being taunted for being Jewish was more about a new and different way to bully than anything to do with my ethnicity.
Then it dawned on me what it might be like to be a twelve year old at the beginning of 2015. You wake up to hear that the Prime Minister of your own country is standing up to defend the rights of people to offend. You can be forgiven for thinking that every bully and troll is rejoicing to get such approval for their actions from arguably the most important man in the country?
Then the Pope gets involved. He mentions that if a good friend of his were to insult the Pope’s mother, the Pope would punch his good friend. David Cameron responds to the Pope saying this –
‘ I think that in a free society there is a right to cause offence about someone’s religion.’
It’s pretty tough at school for many kids anyway, and being a Jew, Christian, Muslim, or whatever creed often can make life even more difficult. The last thing you want to hear is the Prime Minister saying something that could be interpreted as giving bullies the right to be offensive about people’s religion.
Or the Pope advocating punching.
Respect and tolerance are two words that many schoolchildren must be sick of hearing. And many of them may well be asking two questions. Why is it that, on the one hand the powers that be extol these two virtues, and yet also extol freedom of speech which is so often used to be disrespectful, intolerant, offensive, provocative, insulting and bullying?
And why is it OK to portray someone of another faith with a hideous and massive hooked nose when it is a caricature in the name of satire but wrong to do so in other forms of expression?
If I was twelve years old in 2015 I could easily feel a very vulnerable and confused young lad.
The Pope not only defended freedom of expression but also talked about its limits. In the same interview David Cameron described himself as a Christian. Doing unto others as you would have them do to you is a part of the gospel message no bully wants to hear precisely because it would set a limit to their behaviour. Yet neither Pope nor Prime Minister see fit to bring to the debate any contribution that is unmistakably Christian let alone such a relevant key verse – or did such words get edited out? I am sure both could provide a more Christian answer than advocating punching or offensiveness in the name of free speech.
Freedom of speech is given to both the good and the evil, the respectful and the disrespectful,the tolerant and the intolerant, the peaceable and the violent, the bully and the bullied. Not every twelve year old will appreciate such generosity.
I can imagine the sarcasm which bullied kids around the world will use when they talk back to their bullies and say that whilst they disagree with every word said, they would sacrifice their own lives in defence of the bullies’ right to be as offensive, provocative, abusive and insulting as they like.
Fancy being a teacher and explaining Voltaire, satire and freedom of expression to your classes?
And as chance would have it, there is a subject taught in pretty much every school which is all about people’s actions and words and how other people react, often violently, to those actions or words. It is called History. I suspect many a twelve year old today would be baffled that so many grown ups are so surprised and shocked to hear about the consequences of someone’s words or actions leading to a violent response in a country that allows free speech.
But then most children’s conception of an ideal world does not include the right to be offensive, abusive, insulting, disrespectful or intolerant.
davidalexanderjackson 