The Independent and The Guardian are, I understand the only 2 leading UK newspapers who have published the cover of the latest Charlie Hebdo. In the interests of freedom of expression the article in The Independent is linked to here (http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/charlies-back–and-controversial-as-ever–as-its-staff-take-aim-at-powerful-new-friends-9974065.html).
A fish in an aquarium.
Tank brightly eluiminated so he can be observed swimming, swimming.
Encased in glass.
Water just the correct temperature.
Fed, content he swims.
Happily he glides through his regulated world, for ever observed.
A man travels on a train,
CCTV keeps him safe from pain.
Watched he sits contentedly munching, crunching.
For “your protection, CCTV operates throughout this train/station”.
The man is grateful, feels “safe” wrapped in his protective case.
Muggers, thieves are watched along, of course with him but, having nothing to fear he smiles, tut tuts at a headline in the paper and dozes, the movement of the train lulling him to sleep in this insulated world.
He dreams of yester year. A boy growing up, unobserved, free to roam.
Waking he shakes his head sadly,
“The world is a different place from when I was a boy. We must give up a little bit of freedom for the good of society. I have nothing to fear for I’m doing nothing wrong”, he thinks glancing at the camera which observes, keeping him, and the other good people “safe” from harm.
A woman plants a camera to catch her cheating spouse.
She observes the cheating pair, intimate details to make your toes curl.
A couple place tracking software in their teenage children’s mobile devices to keep them “safe”.
And still the fish glides serenely, content in his observed world.
The wind gusting, mocking order, laughing at our pretentions. Our sterile lives shaken, purified by your mighty breath.
Like sand you slip through our fingers, beyond control. Certainties shaken. Life giver and destroyer. Bringer of freedom, turning the world upside down.
For the good of humanity we must sacrifice the paltry joys of the here and now for the ultimate bliss of tomorrow.
For the good of humanity we must abandon the selfish goal of individual fulfilment for the common good.
For the good of humankind we must place freedom on the backburner for we are building an earthly paradise where “the people” shall rule.
Yet Eden remains, floating, somewhere forever out of reach while “the people” shrug their shoulders, and smile or weep.
Written after reading an article on North Korea).
Some 20 years ago my friend John gave me a tape of the REM album containing Losing My Religion. I still have the cassette somewhere although it ceased to play many moons since. Other than Losing My Religion, Night Swimming is probably my favourite REM track. The song talks of freedom, of lost youth and so much more, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGbZFBcO9Dk
Standing in my bedroom, the much loved pine bookcase giving off it’s scent of forests mixed with books. The flat is quiet, England is at peace. What a contrast to the situation in Iraq where madmen in the shape of The Islamic State murder and persecute Christians together with anyone else who dares to disagree with their warped view of the world. Mad men doing evil, chaos reigns and I stand, breathing in the smell of books mixed with pine, at peace in a free land.
The other day an acquaintance remarked that they felt uncomfortable in the presence of women wearing the Burka (the cloak worn by some Muslim ladies which leaves only the eyes exposed). France has banned the garment as an affront to equality, a decision recently upheld by the European Court of Human Rights despite the claims by some Muslims that the ban on the Burka in public breeches human rights. Is the prohibition a peculiarly French piece of legislation stemming from Rousseau’s view, expounded in The Social Contract that man “must be forced to be free”, (in this case those Muslims wishing to wear the Burka must subordinate their desire to “the general will” which, in France appears to be in support of the Burka ban?
Some in the UK are calling for the country to go down the French route and prohibit the Burka in the interests of “social cohesion”. One can not, they claim interact with fellow citizens when all but their eyes are concealed behind black cloth. The Burka is “sinister” and should be prohibited in public. Calls for a prohibition on the wearing of the Burka have found support among some muslim scholars who say it has no place in a modern conception of Islam, (see, for example the following recent article http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2695181/Why-I-Muslim-launching-campaign-ban-burka-Britain.html.
Others argue that banning the Burka runs counter to a long and honourable tradition of British liberty. It is, they say intolerable for the state to dictate to people how they aught to dress. The British philosopher J S Mill was suspicious of what he termed “the tyranny of the majority” and adherents of Mill’s views might well argue that to impose “the general will” or what most people would call “the will of the majority” on fellow citizens as regards how they choose to dress is illiberal. The idea of a person being arrested merely for wearing a certain kind of garment sticks in the throat of many liberals. However other liberals argue that Muslim girls and women often come under intense pressure from within their own communities to wear the Burka and, in many cases it is far from being a free choice of clotheing. Therefore we must assist such women by prohibiting the wearing of the garment in public.
Leaving aside for a moment the rights and wrongs of the Burka there is also the argument of pragmatism. At a time of limited resources is it a good use of police time to go around arresting women for flouting a Burka ban? If such a prohibition where introduced might it act as a recruiting sergeant for Islamic extremists who could portray it as persecution of Muslims?
At a deeper philosophical level can one “force people to be free?” Would prohibiting the wearing of the Burka promote outward conformity with western norms of dress but leave those who wish to wear it inwardly seething with anger?
The advance of the terrorist Islamic State in Iraq undoubtedly helps to fuel suspicion and, in some cases paranoia against Muslims most of whom abhor what is being done in their name in Iraq. We must be steadfast in our opposition to extremism (whether Islamic or otherwise) but, at the same time consider long and hard before going down the road of Burka bans and other similar measures.
What is it to be free?
Freedom is walking barefoot as dawn lights up the sky, damp grass underfoot, wild birds flying unconstrained above.
Freedom is speaking without fear of consequences, no glancing with trepidation over one’s shoulder.
Freedom is letting go,, being who you want to be, not the personification of the desires of others.
Freedom is the passionate kiss, love unbound.
Freedom is life, the opposite of death.
Torchlight, the playground deserted save for the solitary wanderer. The boy, alone or lonely? Traverses the track, his shoes the only sound disturbing the silence which wraps around him. Sometimes the silence is like an old friend, a comforter shielding him from banal chatter and the stupidity of crowds. On other occasions it is a thick blanket, suffocating, killing, stifling breath.
Entwined in darkness he goes his lonely light dimly illumines the darkness. Night is his realm, an escape from the banality of day but, sometimes the darkness oppresses, and, hurrying towards the lit windows he seeks sanctuary of a sort.
Listening to the rain. Safe inside, no fear of the midnight knock on the door. I am at peace free to think my own thoughts. No pyres of burning books, no sound of jackboots coming over the hill. Only the noise of the comforting rain wild and free.
She smiled, awhile I tarried there, fashioned castles out of air. She laughed, set my heart aflame, tis love, or my overactive brain.
I think of her but who is she? A bird encaged longing to be free? Is she content in her cage? Or does she beat the bars with rage? Do I put my thoughts on her? Building castles in the air? Who am I? who is she? Both are struggling to be free.
K Morris - Poet 