One benefit I suppose is the potential for desensitisation - if enough
people do something and for long enough, it becomes normalised - so
maintaining outrage gets harder - a sort of grudging tolerance is achieved
over generations.

Though in environments where exposure to free speech is constrained however,
this might be difficult.
The "outrages" we perpetrate when drawing pictures of Mohammed are as likely
as not just to be repurposed as useful propaganda tools.

As long as leaders of those so outraged want to preserve their status within
a social order that would be presumably be dissolved by western notions of
freedom of speech and association, they have no choice but to resist and
attack and limit exposure of the faithful  to these ideas - and obviously to
characterise the source of such ideas as evil - utilising and stirring up
the instinctive distrust for "strangers"  all peoples (even atheists) have
inherited.

I think the most viable long term approach for promoting freedom is via
stealth & technology - pose no obvious immediate threat to the power of
nasty political & religious regimes, encourage loosening of grip on media &
especially the internet (though economic rewards for example) , and let time
& the natural curiosity & rebelliousness of youth  do the rest....

Cheers
Paul King




and -----Original Message-----
From: [address removed] [mailto:[address removed]] On
Behalf Of aleph_naught
Sent: Friday, 14 May 2010 1:54 p.m.
To: [address removed]
Subject: Re: [chchskeptics] draw muhammad day

Yeah, I'm with Isaac, I don't really see the benefit to this.



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