Trials and Tribulations of Free Speech

So this story about the new EU sculpture is making its way around the American news spheres. My thoughts are as follows:

1. Only a Czech would do this. And it's the primary reason why they're the only country in Europe that still holds my interest and my respect.
2. This controversy does shed light on the un-nuanced, brutish world of the hyper-sensitive "tolerance" movement. Several of sculptures are, to put it simply, open to interpretation. The German piece is clearly overridden with the Autobahn, but some claim to additionally see a hidden swastika in the street pattern. I looked at the Spanish one and saw a cement mixer and a country dominated by construction. Some ever-eager victims-to-be. however, saw a Basque separtist bomb and a destroyed building wall. So, rather than allow each person to experience the art for him/herself, the expression police simply "declare" the art to be the most offensive possibility and demand its repression.
   
3. A not insignificant part of what defines (or at least has defined) the West is the ability for this kind of subversive art to be prominently exhibited. When's the last time you saw a Chinese artist lampooning the Politburo's uptight image in a large mural on the side of a Beijing building? Or how about that renowned Yemeni Dadaist performance art culture? The Belarussian anarchist punk rock movement? Nothing?

The point is, if the art comes down because bureaucrats kvetch everyone else into submission, the West will lose part of its identity.

It's also worth noting that the two groups who are telling people to "sit down, stop 'abusing' your freedoms, and listen to us" are: EU thought police, and radical Islam.

The second part of this post is also free-speech related. Let me first disclaim myself by saying that I think the following video is sophomoric, that I have wonderful friends who are followers of Islam, and that I am now and always have been a strong advocate for teddy bears' rights. That being said, I also am now and always have been a strong advocate for free speech. The right to offend is far more important the the right to not be offended:



There's already like 5-10 versions of this "Slaying the Prophet Muhammad" on YouTube, and the number will grow. The guys orchestrating it know how to use Digg, Reddit, JimmyR, etc. They'll make their plans known. They're 4chan. They (as much as they can be a "they") like to be scatalogical and disrespectful. Courting controversy's their "bag, baby." 4chan fought Scientology, and 4chan won. They're doofuses. Whatever. Here's the thing: the fact that these men and women can live unmolested in a free society is not only commendable to the entity we call "The West", but it also indirectly benefits the West as well. Changes always come from people outside a certain camp. If you ban the outside, you lose all mobility, all ability to make positive change.

This video would normally blossom into a big controversy, but my guess is that the MSM is too afraid to even air this kind of stuff for fear of reprisals/Danish Cartoons: Part II.