mind of this cartoon by the American, John O'Brien. The metaphor
seems appropriate as the guillotine was a French invention.
SADISTIC EXPRESSIONISM
CHARLIE HEBDO or Charlie Weekly, is a satirical publication with a weekly circulation of approximately 50,000 copies. It is described as "left-wing", not because it advocates the overthrow of the Western democracies but because its targets are typically religion, politicians and corporations. It does so with crudely drawn cartoons and biting sarcasm. All very low-brow, which explains the limited circulation. Its managing editor, Stephane Charbonnier, was one of those murdered yesterday. He sometimes took his leftist credentials rather literally, such as when he promoted his publication with the clenched fist of defiance - a traditional gesture of the Communists. It was gutsy of him, because he was courting death. Paris is polluted with Muslim fanatics, and it was inevitable that one of them would go after Charbonnier with a knife on the sidewalk outside of his office. Had I been Charbonnier, I would have kept a shotgun within reach behind my desk. Not a funny image, but a more effective gesture than a clenched fist.
Many will be outraged, for a few days at least, over the massacre perpetrated inside the editorial offices of CHARLIE HEBDO, but the media will turn away and illuminate the next tragedy. They will blather about "free Speech" but in fact there is not one working journalist in Canada who would subscribe to CHARLIE. Not one, and I need not list the reasons. Mercifully, this time the jihadist assassins had no time to videotape themselves cutting off heads of their victims. We had enough of those gory political theatrics in 2014.
CHARLIE HEBDO or Charlie Weekly, is a satirical publication with a weekly circulation of approximately 50,000 copies. It is described as "left-wing", not because it advocates the overthrow of the Western democracies but because its targets are typically religion, politicians and corporations. It does so with crudely drawn cartoons and biting sarcasm. All very low-brow, which explains the limited circulation. Its managing editor, Stephane Charbonnier, was one of those murdered yesterday. He sometimes took his leftist credentials rather literally, such as when he promoted his publication with the clenched fist of defiance - a traditional gesture of the Communists. It was gutsy of him, because he was courting death. Paris is polluted with Muslim fanatics, and it was inevitable that one of them would go after Charbonnier with a knife on the sidewalk outside of his office. Had I been Charbonnier, I would have kept a shotgun within reach behind my desk. Not a funny image, but a more effective gesture than a clenched fist.
Many will be outraged, for a few days at least, over the massacre perpetrated inside the editorial offices of CHARLIE HEBDO, but the media will turn away and illuminate the next tragedy. They will blather about "free Speech" but in fact there is not one working journalist in Canada who would subscribe to CHARLIE. Not one, and I need not list the reasons. Mercifully, this time the jihadist assassins had no time to videotape themselves cutting off heads of their victims. We had enough of those gory political theatrics in 2014.
Still, it is instructive to witness the interplay of crude symbolism. Recall that after decades of wars and atrocities in post-colonial Africa, Asia and the Middle East, the world had grown weary of the bloody images and simply tuned out the carnage. So ISIS, the new terrorist on the block, turned up the volume by making a fetish of performing ritualistic beheading ceremonies - filming and uploading the decapitations of captured soldiers and foreigners. Ghastly. Serious.
And then we have the French cartoonists who lampooned the vicious ISIS ritual, even making it the feature gag for the cover of CHARLIE HEBDO on October 1, 2014. (below) The cartoonists in Europe are just as comfortable as the skinheads with the head-lopping motif as the Muslim murderers. I'm not being prissy in pointing that out. I have written about my Celtic ancestors who were enjoyed taking head trophies and my point remains - millions of moderns are getting too comfortable with ancient forms of barbarism.
In this CHARLIE HEBDO cover page, an ISIS guerrilla
takes the head of the prophet. The "Charlie" brand of
humour is so primitive that a Neanderthal would "get" it.
For Canadian-style cartoon humour try an earlier
article Pissing on the Taliban - for a classic Donato cartoon.
For Canadian-style cartoon humour try an earlier
article Pissing on the Taliban - for a classic Donato cartoon.
And should anyone think for an instant that I am forcing the point, here is a cartoon just published by Dutch cartoonist Joep Bertrams. It is entitled "Onsterfelijk" with the weekly personified by a staffer in T-shirt, and rendered "Immortal" by a Muslim scimitar. It is clever and effective - the cartoon, not the killing. In fact the senior staff at CHARLIE HEBDO were lined up and shot in the head with Kalashnikov assault rifles. The Muslim killers were garbed in black fatigues and balaclavas, the well known uniform ISIS guerrillas, (or French anti-terrorist police for that matter), and one gave the raised finger ISIS salute to those filming him with cellphones. So the Dutch cartoonist simplifies matters by returning to the more shocking image of head-chopping. We get it. We get it instantly.
The Canadian media response to the Paris Massacre have been tepid and tame - oh, so safe. The most honest was of course Christie Blatchford in today's NATIONAL POST [JAN 8/15] Ms. Blatchford began with these trenchant paragraphs:
I'm hoping the POST with archive her article for a year or more. Most of the media-rash on murderous events will disappear from websites in a few months, if not weeks, but I'm hoping Blatchford's article will have legs. Jump to the NATIONAL POST and read her piece while it is still topical.
CHARLIE TAUNTED MUSLIM HOMOPHOBES
Of course many flaks rushed in to remind us, ad nauseam, that the Muslim fanatics in Western Europe are few, while their massive immigrant populations are placid and peace loving. Of course the professional talkers have never read CHARLIE HEBDO or they would know that the weekly often lampooned the prejudices of majority-Muslims. Here is a sloppy taste of HEBDO humour:
CHARLIE HEBDO mocks Muslim homophobia,
which is very widespread. Here the CHARLIE
editor takes a sloppy kiss from the Faithful.
which is very widespread. Here the CHARLIE
editor takes a sloppy kiss from the Faithful.
Of course CHARLIE HEBDO was an enemy of all established religions - but especially Christianity, Judaism and Islam. And as we know, cartoonists need only fear the wrath of Muslims. The Hebdo office was guarded by a policeman, and he was the first to be cut down. Unfortunately for expectant readers, "Left-Wing" satirists have yet to discover the burgeoning cult of environmentalism, with its many associated fetishes. That's too bad. I'd like to see what they could do with it.
CHARLIE HEBDO taunted all of the traditional
religions. Here are a crudely caricatured
Rabbi, Bishop and Muslim Imam.
"FREE SPEECH"? Now that's funny!
Obligatory Update - January 10, 2015
Wikipedia pages always grow from spectacles that the public seems to be following, so I thought I would consult the Wiki-page for the "Charlie Hebdo shooting". "Free Speech" on wikipedia? Pardon me while I puke...
At Noon today the wiki-page for the massacre of the Parisian cartoonists contains NOT A SINGLE EXAMPLE OF THEIR WORK, with the exception of a photo of a protestor holding up an old copy of the weekly. Note the careful wording of the caption (below).
WIKIPEDIA is a owned by Jimmy Wales, an American businessman who self-describes as an "atheist". He currently enjoys living in London, England and according to the most recent update of his own Wiki page, "In December 2014, Wales shared the inaugural $1-million Mohammed bin Rashid Knowledge Award with World Wide Web inventor Sir Tim Berniers-Lee."
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