Peace in Our Time

"At last, we shall have peace in our time."
-Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain of Britain, upon signing the Munich Agreement ceding Czechoslovakia to Hitler

South Park’s Cartoon Wars presents a humorous and satirical take on the issue of free speech. As is typical with the show, the writers take some current issue and extrapolate it to ludicrous proportions, thereby illuminating the flaws, contradictions, and stupidity which underpin it. The show lampoons the response of apologizing for the cartoons instead of defending them. It’s fine to draw cartoons criticizing other religions, but not Islam. Ironically, it’s fine to criticize the world’s largest superpower, but not Islamic nations. Rather, we ought to ignore the issues and hope that they go away.
The show also illustrates how Americans are easily spooked by the mere thought of offending Islam. In the town, mass panic ensues when a censored image is broadcast, and the school’s curriculum has a class added about how not to speak of Muslims.
And, sadly, some of what the episode exaggerates is true. Americans are easily spooked, and we do try to ignore our own constitution to keep angry people sated. And this from a nation which supposedly does not negotiate with terrorists. The last time a great nation tried to appease its foes by granting them what they wanted, there was a world war not a year later.

Sincere apologies for the tardiness of this post. It flew completely out of my mind yesterday.