In Brendan O'Neill's book "A Heretic's Manifesto", which is a collection of essays, the essay "Words Wound" reminds us that words do hurt, but censorship hurts us much more. "So yes, words can be painful. They can be used as weapons. You can feel 'ambushed, terrorised and wounded' by them. But that pain is incomparable to the pain of the physical ambush of the Charlie Hebdo offices, and the pain of the grief and sorrow those 10 deaths will have caused. Charlie Hebdo is accused of 'punching down'. That metaphor of violence - punching-should induce shame in everyone who uses it given the real, barbaric violence the Charlie Hebdo staff suffered for their blasphemies. The barbarism of censorship outweighs the pain of words, every time." - Brendan O'Neill, Words Wound, from A Heretic's Manifesto, page 167.
In Brendan O'Neill's book "A Heretic's Manifesto", which is a collection of essays, the essay "Words Wound" reminds us that words do hurt, but censorship hurts us much more. "So yes, words can be painful. They can be used as weapons. You can feel 'ambushed, terrorised and wounded' by them. But that pain is incomparable to the pain of the physical ambush of the Charlie Hebdo offices, and the pain of the grief and sorrow those 10 deaths will have caused. Charlie Hebdo is accused of 'punching down'. That metaphor of violence - punching-should induce shame in everyone who uses it given the real, barbaric violence the Charlie Hebdo staff suffered for their blasphemies. The barbarism of censorship outweighs the pain of words, every time." - Brendan O'Neill, Words Wound, from A Heretic's Manifesto, page 167.
This is a nice, aspirational message for the New Year!