Somehow our own lefties could be inserted into this article with their hair-on-fire determination to remove the 10 Commandments from court houses, prohibition of Nativity scenes, etc..... while creating a postage stamp tribute to Islam after 9-11.
Were we not in America which has some freedoms remaining intact, we'd probably see full scale parallel destruction of our own icons held sacred since our nation's inception..... just like the left's ideological clones did when communinsm spread through China and Russia. Those of us who are old enough know the drill.
"The New Iconoclasts
By Lee Harris
Source Tech Central Station Daily
"The word iconoclast, when it is used nowadays, most often refers to a person who "attacks established beliefs, ideals, customs, or institution," as Webster's Third puts it -- a definition that turns the iconoclast into a cultural rebel or a free thinker, an individual willing to buck the establishment.
By this standard, the Danish cartoonist who drew the controversial caricatures of Mohammed was an iconoclast in our modern sense, and was simply doing what many cartoonists have done before him, using his gifts to poke fun at sacred cows. True, the sacred cow, in this case, was the Prophet Mohammed, revered by millions of Muslims across the globe. Yet the artists who created the popular TV series South Park routinely represent the figure of Jesus in all manner of mocking ways -- in one episode, Jesus was portrayed in boxing shorts, fighting a grudge match against Satan. No doubt many Southern Baptists were offended by such a caricature. Yet none of them rioted about it.
Here in the contemporary West, for better or worse, there is no cow so sacred that it cannot be made sport of on national television, let alone in cartoons in small scale periodicals. We may regret this or we may rejoice over it, but in either case, we must recognize that the role of the court jester has been valuable in the West precisely because the court jester is permitted to remind the king that he is only human -- and what a useful function that can serve. Thus, parody is a prophylactic against pomposity -- though it is equally serviceable as a collective defense mechanism against fanaticism.
The fanatic is the man who will not allow you to poke fun at his particular sacred cow. He takes his creed so seriously that he refuses to permit anyone else to treat it as a subject for humor or levity.
The topic of fanaticism, however, takes us back to the original meaning of the word iconoclasm, a Greek word that literally means the shattering or destruction of an image, either a visual image, like the icons beloved by Greek Orthodoxy, or the kind of statues that were admired by Roman Catholics. Here the iconoclast is not creating an image designed to provoke irreverence, the way a cartoonist does, but he is intent on eliminating all offensive images completely and totally.
There were two great iconoclastic movements that shook the Byzantine Empire, first in the eighth century, and later in the ninth century, both of which exhibited the same fanatic zeal in destroying the thousands of icons that adorned Byzantine churches and monasteries. Why? Because the Byzantine iconoclasts argued that what were regarded by many as beautiful artistic treasures were in fact acts of sacrilege and blasphemy. They were not to be removed from the churches and monasteries, in order to be carefully preserved in a museum, as a government of zealous atheists might do -- no, they were to be destroyed root and branch.
Many modern historians have argued that the outbreak of Byzantine iconoclasm in the eighth century was the result of the expansion of the intensely iconoclastic Arab conquerors that had occurred in the previous century -- an expansion that gobbled up large chunks of the Byzantine Empire in what is now Syria. For the Arabs, however, it was not enough merely to destroy the sacred icons of Greek orthodoxy -- for them, all pictorial representation was forbidden. You could not draw a man or a pea or a cat, nor could you make statues of them -- and any drawings or statues of them you came across had to be immediately destroyed.
The Protestant Reformers, who were also iconoclasts, were less severe. They simply wanted to obliterate any image of the Virgin Mary or of the Catholic Saints that they did not themselves accept -- and here again, not even a thought was given to the idea of sparing the item due to historical or artistic value.
Wherever iconoclasts triumphed, they did not rest content until they had destroyed all the images that they found to be sacrilegious -- what we in the modern West automatically regard as harmless art, the iconoclasts see as hideous blasphemy; and while to us a "mere" cartoon can be amusing or disgusting, none of us would wish to see every image of it effaced from the earth. We would preserve it simply because of its documentary value, if for no other reason. That is why the iconoclast is, by definition, a fanatic. He feels he has a mission to destroy all the images that he holds to be against his fanatical creed. All must perish.
It has been almost half a millennium since the last outbreak of iconoclastic fanaticism in the West. Yet if you try to discover a republication of the Danish cartoons on the reputable Internet sites, you will discover that they are not being posted. CNN on line noted that they would not be showing the cartoons "out of respect for Islam." Nor does CNN's stance seem to be exceptional. Meanwhile, profuse apologies are being offered to the Muslim world by men who had nothing whatsoever to do with either the creation or the publication of the cartoons, and who are denouncing the cartoons for being…cartoons.
In short, the new iconoclasts are winning -- they are realizing that they have the power to make us suppress any image that they find disagreeable to their stern and mirthless fanaticism -- even if it is just a funny cartoon in a paper published in a cold corner of Europe, far far from Mecca.
Either Muslims need to begin to get a sense of humor, or we need to became a great deal more serious. "
Lee Harris is author of Civilization and It Enemies.
April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 January 2013 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 March 2011 January 2011 December 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 March 2005 November 2004 October 2004