THEY are trying to impose their values on us, not the other way round
Wasn't that precisely what the provocateurs at Jyllans-Posten set out to demonstrate? Wasn't it their intention (within the context of tension in Denmark between the extreme/hard right and the immigrant minority) to polarize opinion and to promote the idea of civilization clash? Is it really fruitful to fall headlong into their trap?
I don't doubt that there are some "THEY" out there who would like to impose their views on "US". OTOH, we in the West are currently involved (like it or not, the leaders concerned were re-elected) in an attempt to impose our views on them, along the lines: your religion and social organization are archaic and you need some democracy to straighten you out. The "THEM against US" scheme is that of civilization clash, that of the xenophobic Euro-right and the neocons, and, imho, we shouldn't be touching such thinking with a ten-foot pole.
There is not an US and there is not a THEM, and freedom of speech is not the value that all Europeans hold most dear either as some have said (there is not a single such value, since there is not a single US). guaranteed to evoke a violent reaction from police is to challenge their right to "define the situation." --- David Graeber citing Marc Cooper
I am of the conviction, and strongly so, that there is a reason these declarations/charters is viewed in the international community as the most important treaty for much of the work of the UN, and certainly the European council, and the European court of human rights. Bitsofnews.com Giving you the latest bits.
In this whole debate I have not said that there is not a right to free speech, but that rights need to be exercised responsibly, and that JP had an axe to grind and were being disingenous. Another thing that has come out of this is that I have actually had a closer look at the Spanish constitution and (today) at the section of the Criminal Code dealing with crimes relative to the exercise of fundamental rights and public freedoms. It doesn't seem as clear-cut as some would have us believe. guaranteed to evoke a violent reaction from police is to challenge their right to "define the situation." --- David Graeber citing Marc Cooper
Not in the sense that it is exclusively European, but that it is one of the core elements on what the European cooperation is build upon, and what both in legal terms, and socially is established as a common "European ethical fundament", one of the lessons of WWII.
On the charters of fundamental human rights, there has not been much room for manoeuvres by individual governments, of course the follow-up to implement, is another story. Bitsofnews.com Giving you the latest bits.
