Monday, January 12, 2015

Je Suis C...oncerned

The "Je suis Charlie" thing must have surely run its course. The issue has been debated, written about, conspiracised and generally chewed to a pulp over past days. There's little more that can be said on the events themselves. I feel a little uneasy (to say the least) about what could spring from them. Millions marching in Paris at the weekend?

There have been reports and commentary about a growing right-wing, fascist-like element in European politics for a while now, long before the Charlie Hebdo killings were international front-page news. I don't know which way Hebdo leaned politically. Those in the know claim it was well to the left. If this were so, though, wouldn't their satire have been more conducive to encouraging rank and file French people to support their Muslim neighbours and workmates? I cannot possibly see how the obscene caricatures of the Muslim religious figure head would help in that regard.

I don't for a moment think Hebdo was an outright fascist outfit, akin to Germany's Der Sturmer in the 1930s, whose anti-Semitic cartoons must have aided acceptance of mass deaths in Germany, and were preceded by the dehumanising of whole groups through caricature. What we've seen recently indicates that Charlie Hebdo has at least been lending a (possibly inadvertent) hand to the growing right's National Front party in France, led by Marine le Pen.

Bearing in mind how the world is now so easily connected, second by second, via internet's social media, it doesn't take much imagination to see how European countries, whose large immigrant Muslim populations are causing some native born individuals and groups to worry about losing their national identity in the future, might jump on the "Je suis Charlie" bandwagon. Their intent could be to infiltrate and use it, not to uphold free speech, but for their own political ends - to de-humanise, mock and pillory immigrant groups, deter further immigration, and in turn foster growth of what would become a fascist following. Things are not the same as events in the 1930s, fears and reasons for them are different. There was no fear of Jewish terrorism then. The "pieces" are different, but the "game" is related. I think the astrology is related also, as it happens - a time of Uranus-Pluto square aspects, the earlier one waning, current one waxing.

Whatever else most of the "Je Suis Charlie" mob with their constant, and no doubt well-meaning, emphasis on free speech want to see, one hopes fervently that they do not inadvertently become caught up in achieving the opposite, slipping into a new version of the Europe of 1937-1945, with Muslims as targets instead of Jews, gypsies, homosexuals and others. A side effect of this would be to see free speech hurtling rapidly down the drain.

Slippery slopes are not always obvious - early on.

13 comments:

Sonny G said...

It concerns me more by the day how easy the masses are manipulated by all media. I agree, we have arrived at an etremely slippery slope and while some wont go willingly , they will be forced along by the crowd to a place they would have never willingly gone.

great post Annie~!

Anonymous said...

I am Charlie. I am the child of Voltaire, Rousseau, Diderot, ...I am perfectly aware of the dangers of this situation because I can think and I have learned from the past. Religions have nothing to do with it, I stand up for our secular Republic that unites us all, whatever our beliefs.
I will fight stupidity and ignorance.
Charlie Hebdo is indeed extremely left oriented but above all here to make us laugh, especially at what is sacred and I can assure you that all religions have always been equally mocked. I am Charlie and NO ONE tells me what I can or can't laugh at.

Twilight said...

Sonny ~ Thank you - and thank goodness I'm not the only one feeling concerned.

Twilight said...

Anonymous ~ I'm glad to know you're aware of the dangers and remain aware of the past. That's just you though.
I hope there are millions as awake you say you are.

I hope you will also fight for the right of others to believe what you do not - that's part of it and something that is often forgotten.

It would be good too if you would feel inspired fight as hard for something else - the right of ordinary, innocent people in many countries of the Middle East to have the opportunity to live their lives without fear of automated death from above - and in our names!

mike said...

Hhhmmmm, I think many nations have gone the fascist route already, with the USA at the top of the list. The "five eye nations" being Australia, Canada, New Zealand, UK, and USA. Here's an excerpt from Wiki:

"Fascists sought to unify their nation through an authoritarian state that promoted the mass mobilization of the national community and were characterized by having leadership that initiated a revolutionary political movement aiming to reorganize the nation along principles according to fascist ideology. Fascist movements shared certain common features, including the veneration of the state, a devotion to a strong leader, and an emphasis on ultranationalism and militarism. Fascism views political violence, war, and imperialism as a means to achieve national rejuvenation, and it asserts that stronger nations have the right, and indeed an imperative, to expand their territory by displacing weaker nations."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fascism

Obviously, we are seeing a newer version of fascism, one redesigned for the 21st century, impacted by the Uranus-Pluto square. Just as the Uranus-Pluto square simmers-down post March, 2015, we'll be under the Saturn-Neptune square and Jupiter-Saturn square. Saturn is currently semi-square Pluto and sesquiquadrate Uranus. I believe that the next five or six years will be extremely explosive, literally and figuratively, as fundamentalism, politics, nationalism, racism, individualism, etc re-equilibrate. The next several years will be perilous, but exciting, as so many changes are upon us.

Tipping points are interesting. Charlie Hebdo mocked many ideologies and theologies (I liked the cartoon with Pope Benedict having his way with the little boy!). I would like to say that it is easy to stand-up and unify in solidarity, but I see little of that here in the USA. I hope that those fighting the darker forces will be able to maintain true fortitude should the going become very arduous. Identifying those forces may be cloaked in fog and unification may be a charade (think weapons of mass destruction in Iraqi).

Twilight said...

mike ~ The USA and other nations you list are en route to full-blown 21st century style fascism. How far along the route isn't easy to tell - this being the updated version, aided by all kinds of technological subterfuge not available in the 1930s, so we have no template. It's a bit clichéd to say so, but "we're in uncharted waters", even with astrology as guide.

I do get the feeling that reaction to the Hebdo events, tragic as they were, has been way out of proportion, and cannot help but wonder if there's been some extra "orchestration" going on.

I understand that Charlie Hebdo mocked just about everything - albeit with little in the way of the wit. Wit is supposed to be a hallmark of satire. Caricature without wit descends into crude schoolboy stuff, with bullying, and often racist, undertones.

Your words "unification may be a charade" ring bells, and really a similar thought was what led me to write this post.

mike (again) said...

Some of the video footage of the Paris events I viewed made me wonder. Now today, I see others are pondering the same:

http://humansarefree.com/2015/01/the-paris-false-flag-very-briefly.html

Sonny G said...


just a side note that I heard and saw personal photos taken by a friend of mine in maine who went to NY for the holidays with family. she wrote an email to a few of us who have stayed connected through the years, asking if we thought she and her family would be ok since the area they were going sight seeing in were places where the NEWS had said their were large groups of protestors and they expected more to participate in the following days:: the exact time they would be there..
next email was-they family had discussed it and decided they would head there and if they saw a congestion of people gathered or anything that made them uncomfotable they would just turn around and go to a different part of the city..
3 days later we got another email.
it all went fine- no crowds- 3 protestors with signs who actually waved andd smiled as the family went by. The very night before on the news they had again shown a large group of protestors and ya know the drama talk the news is famous for-- "oh my what will tommorrow bring to NYC??~!!!,,stay turned for updates"...
My friend wouldnt lie and she wouldnt allow her family to go where there was any danger at all..
thats just one true sample between the truth and what we see on the news. the manipulate us like sheep, the news in any form is now entertainment tv ,,it is not the truth of any situation..
the powers that be work the media and the media works us and at the end of the day its all just,, Mental Masturbation~!

Twilight said...

mike (again) ~ Hmm yes, I've read a few pieces proposing the false flag theory. I'm not sure I accept the full-on false flag suggestion, but could easily see how an event such as this, not entirely unexpected in light of past threats, might be seconded/adopted by certain powers that be for their own ends.

It all feels somehow out of kilter to me.

Twilight said...

Sonny ~ Thanks for that example of media manipulation. It doesn't surprise me. I'm at the stage where I simply don't believe anything I read on news websites. They all have their agendas: to increase readership and hits on websites, so that adverts are viewed along with the hyperbole. Some writers and editors are looking out for their own jobs, others are following instructions from above, being manipulated themselves to manipulate us .

mike (again) said...

"The Charlie Hebdo attack was a strike against free speech. So why is the response more surveillance?" by Trevor Timm

"As politicians drape themselves in the flag of free speech and freedom of the press in response to the tragic murder of Charlie Hebdo cartoonists, they’ve also quickly moved to stifle the same rights they claim to love. Government officials on both sides of the Atlantic are now renewing their efforts to stop NSA reform as they support free speech-chilling surveillance laws that will affect millions of citizens that have never been accused of terrorism.

This is an entirely predictable response – as civil liberties advocates noted shortly after Wednesday’s tragic attack, the threat of terrorism has led to draconian laws all over the world over the last decade – but this time around, the speed and breadth by which politicians praised free speech out of one side of their mouths, while moving to curtail rights out of the other, has been quite breathtaking.

UK prime minister David Cameron immediately expressed solidarity with “defending the freedom of the press”. Let’s put aside for a second that his government has shown the kind of disdain for press freedoms that is usually reserved for the most authoritarian of regimes. (Detaining the partner of journalist Glenn Greenwald’s under the Terrorism Act, criminally investigating the Guardian for producing Pulitzer Prize-winning journalism, and regularly imprisoning social media users are just a few of his government’s recent assaults on speech.)"

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jan/10/charlie-hebdo-attack-free-speech-surveillance

Twilight said...

mike (again)~ Thanks for the link. Good one!
The first comment I read beneath the article:

The establishment knows never to let a good crisis go to waste....
I fear that a few more of these attacks in the west might turn the establishment in to constructing a full police state!


And wouldn't that fit just perfectly into the agenda!?

Twilight said...

Further... (Tue 13 Jan)

http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2015/01/13/charlie-hebdo-fallout-specters-of-fascist-past-haunt-europes-new-nationalism/

Charlie Hebdo fallout: Specter of fascist past haunts European nationalism