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Not Your Grandfather's Conservatism

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multiculturalism Archive

Friday

9

January 2015

2

COMMENTS

#JeSuisCharlie Won’t Save Free Speech

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The horrific attacks on Charlie Hebdo  have brought forth a defence of free expression from politicians, journalists, and ordinary citizens. But the outpouring of support is an exception in a broader pattern of events. The French President tries to call for a national unity that seems little more than a distant memory. Satirists across Europe convey their shock and grief – but everyone is rightfully nervous about republishing the Muhammad cartoons which put Charlie Hebdo on the radical Islamist death list. As Foreign Policy magazine and Reason.com have both pointed out, we are not all Charlie Hebdo, and not a few Western outlets […]

Monday

29

December 2014

1

COMMENTS

Thy Name is Social Alienation

Written by , Posted in Uncategorized

On a particularly cold Autumn day, I stood on a street corner in a small North American town. It was windier and chillier than normal, and hardly conducive to the kind of procrastinative loitering typical of Southern Europe — but the Sun was unusually bright, and when its warmth caught my face I knew what the moment demanded. I lit a cigarette and let the Sun toast me as best it could. Whistling old Christmas tunes, I watched as three desperate souls hurried past me in three different directions. All three walked quickly. They maintained a nervous gait, as if trying to […]