Saturday 10 January 2015

Not proud to be an artist right now.

Well it seems virtually nobody stood up for free speech, few publications dared to reprint the cartoons that inspired the killings and we got instead a hashtag movement and a candle lit vigil attended by the masses who'd never bought or heard of the magazine to begin with.

There where big signs held up stating "Not Afraid". Really? Not afraid, when some goon in a home-made battle ensemble raids your place of work and points an uzi at your face? Most sane people would totally fail the not afraid test at that juncture.

The fact that most newspapers and media outlets went out of their way to not re-print the cartoons shows me that our writers and artists have given in and accepted the new set of limitations imposed on their freedoms by men with guns and knives, they have shown that they are "Very Afraid!".