Il faut être Charlie

I’m feeling a bit embarrassed now about the tagline of my last post (December 20th).  Today the French have an even greater right to be miserable than they did before the shocking events of last Wednesday. I’m not sure from what I’ve seen of them that the cartoons in Charlie Hebdo had any point to them that was worth going to the stake for, but to slightly misquote the great French philosopher Voltaire, I do defend their right to publish them. Unlike Voltaire I don’t think I’d be prepared to defend that right to the death, but I greatly respect the journalists of Charlie Hebdo who thought differently. At the moment freedom of expression seems to me to be far more important than individual happiness.