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Musings Report #3 1-16-15 Freedom of Speech, Acculturation, Assimilation & Political Correctness
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Freedom of Speech, Acculturation, Assimilation & Political Correctness
A friend who has lived in France for two decades recently shared some observations of the kind that never make it into the mainstream media.
"France has had several horrible terrorist attacks over the years. This was a very publicized event because it is the first time in history that journalists have been killed in their own office doing their normal work. The last really bad bomb attack was in 1995 when we still lived in Paris - the metro station St Michel was bombed. Several people died and dozens were injured for life. Since then there have been smaller attacks that do not make international news.
The thing about this event was that it has been an on-going fight over the right to criticize anything and everything (a French right that comes with birth). People outside of French culture often have a hard time with this god-given right to verbally, or through written means, attack anything and everything - which is called criticizing - and then this is supposed to open "discussions" and debates on the subjects where everyone yells at each other and talks over the other person to shout out their views.
All of this process is very French and an ingrained part of their culture. They like it and think it is normal even though no-one hears the others or even cares; it is all in the "discussion". The problem is for people outside of French culture - even if they are born here - or have lived here for 20 years like me. I definitely avoid these people - either they are intellectuals or activists - and very aggressive types.
All in all the majority of French do not understand how aggressive this "freedom of speech" can be to non-French. So the main shock was around the fact that someone killed these journalists and cartoonists for doing their job - criticizing everyone. The people at Charlie have been warned by everyone (government, etc.) that they were going over the line, but they insisted on their rights.
The Charlie paper was dying out - it is a dinosaur from the 60's that almost no-one read anymore. It was very gross and vulgar. Not really interesting and 98% of the French just ignored it until the staff got killed.
Legally they did nothing wrong, but it is hard morally to not see that you can only poke a stick at a tiger for so long before he eats you. In any case, killing is never justified and it is not to be tolerated. The main point is this, killing people is not an option for expressing their views.
The walks yesterday in Paris (over 1.5 million people) and in all the main cities of France - over 4 million total - were totally pacifist and included all religions and ethnic types. It was / is a great outpouring of unity and hope for a real republic that respects the human rights of all. France has 10% of its population as Muslims, about 5% as Jews and the rest we don't know - it is illegal here to quote percentages by religion or race. These figures come from the rest of Europe. It is a great turn of events and it has the possibility to turn around not only France, but Europe as well.
It is extremely touching and heartwarming to see this unity from all different religions and ethic people. Hopefully this unity can be built on and expanded. The immigrants are not going to leave, they need to be actively engaged by the governments and worked with and not marginalized."
Reading between the lines, one can recognize some of these same observations in this short interview with ex-pat R.Crumb:
Legendary Cartoonist Robert Crumb on the Massacre in Paris.
Rather than seek analytic conclusions or extrapolate grand theories about "The Clash of Civilizations," I want to reflect on the meaning of freedom of speech,acculturation, assimilation and political correctness (PC)--four themes that run beneath the media focus on Charlie Hebdo, radical Islam and immigrants in France and Europe.
Is "freedom of speech" identical to purposefully inflammatory speech acts about minorities? Or does freedom of speech include a concept of content and opinion that excludes bigotry, racism, and speech acts that have no other purpose other than being inflammatory?
As my friend in France pointed out, legal definitions of free speech are interpreted to mean "anything goes." The idea that some speech is proscribed culturally rather than legally is known as political correctness: that is, that some speech is too inflammatory to be declared publicly.
It's extremely easy to criticize political correctness as a form of subtle repression, and indeed, it is necessary to question all forms of political correctness, implicit or explicit, to ensure that some political factions haven't manipulated the rules of language to protect themselves from criticism.
On the other hand, can anyone imagine a publication in the U.S. that consistently goes out of its way to offend and inflame a religious or ethnic minority? Media that has no content other than inflammatory intent is not just frowned upon in the U.S.; it would immediately draw resistance, regardless of the sanctity of free speech.
In the U.S., it is widely (if implicitly) recognized that inflammatory language (and/or images) is destructive to the national value system that enables a culture of minorities to get along with each other. The supposed "good" of giving free expression to inflammatory language and images is countered by the destructive consequences of such language.
I think we can draw a constructive line by comparing the words acculturation and assimilation. In cultures dominated almost entirely by one ethnicity/cultural group, immigrants are always expected to assimilate into the dominant culture, and their inability or unwillingness to do so is viewed as the core problem posed by immigration.
In cultures born of immigration such as the U.S., the society/culture is still being dynamically shaped by immigrants and the first-generation children of recent immigrants, the political correctness (or perhaps more accurately, the careful attention to the consequences of inflammatory language and images) and general air of sensitivity to and acceptance of differences is part of acculturation, which explicitly refers to a melding of two or more cultures, rather than the assimilation of one into the other.
Freedom of speech is not just a legal concept; it is a political and cultural concept that recognizes the power of words to trigger conflict and destructive emotions that did not exist before the inflammatory language/images were published.
In other words, there is a role for the much-maligned concept of political correctness, in the limited sense of recognizing that the negative consequences of inflammatory language/images outweighs the benefits of completely unfettered inflammatory language/images.
Many complain of the hypocrisy of political correctness, and this is a fair point of criticism. But from another point of view,political correctness is less about hypocrisy and more about the broad-based benefits of keeping bigotry, prejudice, etc. private rather than ignoring the consequences of openly publishing such views.
I am not suggesting speech should be limited legally; I am merely pointing out that public speech and media play a distinct role in differentiating cultures bent on assimilation from those whose interests lie in acculturation.
The large-scale public gatherings described by my correspondent may provide the positive opening for a discussion of what acculturation might mean for Europe.
Summary of the Blog This Past Week
Our Central Planners Are Breeding Failure 1/16/15
The Fed and the Price of Oil 1/15/15
What Is a National Nervous Breakdown? 1/14/15
The Deep State Strategy: Burn Everyone Else's Oil First, Leave Ours in the Ground 1/13/15
The Achilles Heel of the Global Status Quo: Deflation 1/12/15
Best Thing That Happened To Me This Week
My mom-in-law's 84th birthday celebration--pumpkin curry, BBQ and blueberry cream cheese pie. Great company, great food.
Market Musings: What Happens If the European Central Bank Announces Stimulus?
The European Central Bank (ECB) is widely expected to announce a large stimulus program on January 22, if for no other reason than to appear to "do something" in the face of Europe's slide into recession. What will this do to currencies, stock markets and bonds?
It's difficult to see how money-printing stimulus could be positive for the euro. It seems likely to push the euro down and the dollar up.
As for stocks, central bank stimulus pushes equities higher even as it does nothing for the real economy. Thus we can expect another push higher in US stocks.
We can see modest peaks in the CPC and VIX that support a rally--though the lack of extremes suggest a trading-range rally rather than a new leg of the 6-year Bull market.
Given the global recession that is clearly kicking into gear, how long can stocks rise? There are some clues in the weekly chart of the SPX. Major declines tend to occur only when the MACD has dipped below the neutral line. The MACD has been slowly declining for the past year, but it has quite a ways to go down before it even touches the neutral line.
This suggests we have more months of MACD divergence ahead, where MACD slowly descends to the neutral line as price continues edging higher.
From Left Field
London’s Poor Fetish "Other restaurants were simply a collage of meaningless symbols and aesthetics, shorn from their original contexts to create a faux-working-class experience—an experience that was nothing more than an illusion."
10 Awesome Perks Of Getting Married Really Young -- runs counter to the current wisdom....
Let Me Die, Chinese Mother Says as Cancer Bills Pile Up -- soaring cancer rates, non-universal care, what if economists measured the increase in human suffering along with GDP....
Everything Has Changed: Oil, Saudi Arabia, And The End Of OPEC (via Mike D.)
All of Us Worried, None of Us Angry -- insights from the new book, Cut Adrift: Families in Insecure Times....
The Depression’s Unheeded Lessons (via Joel M.)
The reason the global economy is still in rough shape seven years later, in this telling, is that leaders in the United States and Europe drew the conclusions they wanted to hear from the Depression.
In China, Projects to Make Great Wall Feel Small (via Maoxian) -- the Skyscraper Indicator: huge new buildings presage financial crashes....
“GOD FORGOT ABOUT ME”: FATHER OF PINYIN TURNS 109 (via Maoxian)
Leaked Palantir Doc Reveals Uses, Specific Functions And Key Clients -- cross-referencing and making sense of multiple databases is the core of Big Data....
24 pieces of life advice from Werner Herzog -- a few good ones: 5. Learn to live with your mistakes. Easier said than done.
How my assistant got into trouble with Beijing’s security apparatus and I got to know the Chinese authorities -- the reality of a one-party police state....
Akira Kurosawa’s List of His 100 Favorite Movies -- assembled by his daughter; only one film per director was the rule....
“Never think that lack of variability is stability. Don’t confuse lack of volatility with stability, ever.” – Nassim Taleb
Thanks for reading--
charles |
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