Defending the right to be silenced

Oh, this is rich. In Saturday’s Fairfax press, columnist Martin Flanagan did a bit of venting about some of the many things that really annoy those on the left — Rupert Murdoch, columnists Rita Panahi and Miranda Devine and, most all, Senator Cory Bernardi, whose crime it was to mis-attribute a quotation to Voltaire when it was actually the work of an American neo-nazi. Such a lack of charity from the senior writer for a newspaper that mis-identified an innocent teenager as the junior jihadi who stabbed two police officers in suburban Melbourne and was shot dead for his efforts! But let that be, as it is Flanagan’s take on Voltaire which concerns us.

What if Voltaire did say “To know who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticise”? Senator Cory Bernardi tweeted these words as Voltaire’s and did so in a way that insinuated this country is currently ruled by people we are not allowed to criticise. Murdoch columnists Miranda Devine and Rita Panahi twittered approvingly.

Flanagan then goes on a windy digression about Georgian and Victorian sensibilities before rounding on his point, which is that you can say pretty much anything you like these days because there is little possibility of occupying a jail cell for lampooning political figures, nor death sentences for blasphemy. This last assertion will be a great comfort to those Charlie Hebdo staffers still drawing breath, but it is that earlier Frenchman, Voltaire, who might very well saddle a modern-day admirer with quite a bit of grief were he or she to stage one of his lesser known works, Fanaticism, or Mahomet the Prophet. As the title suggests, it does not paint a flattering portrait of Islam’s founder.

While it is most unlikely the producer would score an Australia Council grant for such a production, it could be presented by an impresario of independent means. And what might happen then — almost certainly would happen? Well, you could expect protests and bomb threats, perhaps the odd riot, although these might be shrugged off by the brave or reckless.

What you could not avoid is harassment by an official promoter of multiculturalism. Doubt that? Just ask the Two Dannys, the preachers with a low opinion of Islam who were dragged through the legal system by the Islamic Council of Victoria, working hand in glove with the multi-culti state bureaucrats.

Voltaire would not have approved. Nor, were he to be reincarnated, could he hope to land a job as a Fairfax columnist, where they know who and what are safe to criticise.

Flanagan’s column can be read in full via the link below.

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