Insensitive Mark Steyn

6 February, 2006. 337 words.

Here’s another opportunity for me to review an article by Mark Steyn, ‘Sensitivity’ can have brutal consequences. I’ll summarize it so you don’t have to read it.

Mark Steyn feels that the multicultural sensitivity shown by Britain (in not reprinting those Danish cartoons of Muhammad) invites intimidation by militant Islamists and contributes to the downfall of Western society. He makes a lot of implicit comparisons between the British foreign secretary and liberal America.

Admittedly, that’s a pretty condensed version, but I think that’s the essence of it. If you’re interested in seeing how one can expand two sentences into sixteen paragraphs, feel free to read the article. (In a nutshell, Mr. Steyn makes generous use of liberal-bashing side trips, not to mention an obsolete factoid about NBC’s Will & Grace.)

As for “sensitivity” leading to the downfall of Western society… uh, whatever. I roll my eyes at political correctness as much as the next guy, but I think civilization, and simple prudence, requires us to err on the side of common courtesy. Many people annoy me during a typical day, and many other people are just plain wrong, but it’s not always helpful to point it out to them.

Of course, none of the aforementioned people are spouting hate speech, killing anyone, or burning anything, so perhaps that’s not a great analogy.

P.S. Many (conservative) bloggers have complained that when offensive Jesus-dipped-in-urine art is shown in the media it’s protected under free speech, but when offensive Muhammad-wearing-a-bomb-hat cartoons are not shown it’s being sensitive to the Muslim people, implying some sort of media bias against Americans. Sure, there’s a double standard there. But that presumes an equal level of civility and governmental stability between Christians and Muslims. An offended fundamentalist Christian in his nice suburban home is probably only going to write angy letters or start a fundraising campaign, but an offended militant Islamist in his poor desert rubble home where 3/4 of his family died of starvation might pick up his Kalashnikov and start shooting indiscriminantly.

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