Head on collision

 

 

"Head on collisions are about as bad as they come..."

In the past few weeks, we have had two head on collisions. And neither one had anything to do with driving. What collided? Tyranny against liberty, that is all. To me, it was a textbook example of these two forces coming together in an unpleasant manner.

The first involved Hollywood, the purveyors of filth and bad movies. Oh, they are still capable of making a good movie (once in a great while). However, the trend line has been for vile and tasteless humor. It seems the recent movie The Interview ruffled some feathers over in North Korea. They did not like the way it portrayed the current "Great Leader". I guess even at the end of the movie the "Great Leader" gets a ticket to the "Great Beyond". I don't know for sure, as I did not see it.

Before the release, in came the threats. The Norks were going to do something nasty to Sony. They were going to hack the heck out of their IT infrastructure. They were going leak sensitive data. They were even going to hack movies which had not yet been released and (gasp), release them for free on the internet. The final straw came when they also threatened movie theaters who showed this movie. A "9/11" type fate would await any theater who released this garbage movie.

The second of course, was the bloody massacre in Paris last week. Over some tasteless cartoon and satire, done by a small group of people who satirize just about everyone in power. Many times the cartoons are borderline pornographic. However, they "stepped over the line" when they made fun of the Prophet Mohammed. Death threats were issued, and then carried out. 

The collision happened in both of these incidents because of two opposite principles. The first is tyranny. This principle is one person (or government, or organization) stealing the liberty of another person(s). History is replete with examples of tyranny. The second is liberty. The freedom of Hollywood to make garbage movies, of cartoonists to satirize anything or anybody, and so long as nobody is harmed, they have that right to do so. I also have a right. I have the right not to see movies I find objectionable. I have the right not to read papers or look at cartoons that might offend me. Those are iron clad, God given rights. They are known in this country as part of our freedoms.

In the future, look for more collisions of these two principles. These will continue so long as we allow tyranny to exist. Once tyranny is gone, or at least held at bay, driving the liberty express will again be safe - anywhere in the world.