Paris. A New Kind of 9/11.

The world changed in Paris morning. And it has nothing to do with the body count. I'm going to suggest that the ramifications are greater than that of 911, so please bear with me. What we witnessed was an attack on our fundamental freedom to think, to speak, to say things that challenge and offend. Like all acts of terror we can take some comfort from the 0% success rate that extremists enjoy in terms of achieving their ultimate goals, but make no mistake that if we let this one slide then things are going to be tough. My primary concern is based on an observation that the majority of people are actually cowards, and when it comes to the punch they will be crouching down out of site. If this is you then you're just the person that radical Islam is aiming for. They will silence you, make you fearful to speak out, and continue to advance a culture of offence that has already gone way past asinine. But I'm happy to buck that trend, and intend to continue to frown at the absurdity of all religion, and in particular Islam and its pedophile prophet. You see, I'm not prepared to be told what I can and cannot say by a group that advocates the kind of society where gender equality is despised, homosexuality is a crime, and when young girls are denied basic access to education, quashing the myriad astonishing gifts femininity has bought to the world. I happen to think that route one to a better world, a kinder and more compassionate world is via the increasing empowerment of women, and there is no force on Earth as opposed to this as the patriarchy of radical Islam. Even mainstream Islam, dare I say it. At root, Christianity and Islam share the same basic fabrication, and deviate based on cultural geographical impulses. It's all made up, all a grand fairytale, and from false roots they've gone on to develop in their own unique, grimly inferior ways. And as long as people are afraid of the dark and of mortality then we will have to deal with this nonsense, and I'm ok with that so long as it doesn't seek to shit on my cornflakes.
Believe what you want, just don't force us to inhale the intellectual stench. Live out your life as you please, but do it without dragging the rest of us into your own tawdry nonsense. Christianity is a corpse of a religion now, and even in America it is happily in decline. But Islam is a danger, not least because the moderates appear unable to bring the radicals under any meaningful control. It seems the desire for a supreme caliphate is burning up huge swathes of the Middle East, and the poison is seeping horribly into the west. Today cartoonists were murdered. Fucking artists. Do you want to let those responsible enjoy even one iota of success?
I don't. I won't. And I think as a society the hour as come to join battle. Only the battle for us is one of ideas rather than violence, our artillery freedom and humour and irony and critical thinking. Not for us the bullet or the bomb. At least not outside of military circles. And we need to remember that in order to succeed we need only to continue on our path, to seek greater freedom, to empower generation after generation to innovate and explore, and to reject violent response to what I have previously referred to as The Cult of Bearded Goons. And after all, all religions are ultimately cults. As a modern society I long for the day when we grow up and grow out of this ancient folly. We've suffered long enough under its yoke, and we should be shedding this veil of deceit.