Difficult

  'Il l'a cherché...' (He asked for it...) I thought it and said it in 

an unreflective moment the day after the murder of Samuel P., 

the French teacher who had shown the Charlie hebdo caricatures 

of the Prophet in a class on Freedom of Expression. I wouldn't have

done that and - apparently - neither would have Justin Trudeau,

the teacher. He has been quoted to the effect that it is a simple question

of respect.

Yet, in France, the response from president Macron has been a clear "Nous ne 

céderons pas' (We are not compromising on this!). While the 'this' in question

is some pretty rude humor. Even the very serious Le Monde has been with Macron, 

because France is a non-religious polity and won't tolerate 'l'intégrisme'

in any form.

Looking at the question again, especially in light of a second attack, this time

killing three in a Church in Nice, I am forced to reconsider. France is a Republic,

where every citizen carries his or her own conception of the State. Indeed,

the bloody history that ended monarchy in France was itself the product of extreme

rudeness about the behavior and the very person of Aristocrats. Louis XVI was 

overweight and bored; Marie-Antoinette coquette, and flirty; Versailles was an endless

sleep-over given over to excess. What was all this in service of? A new conception

of the person, not divine but self-interested and that was okay. We hold each other in

check.

So, undoubtedly, the cartoonists of Charlie Hebdo themselves 'asked for it' with their

outrageous humor; it was their job, if you will. Making a French society where 18 year-olds

need not be murderers to gain the respect of their families or the redemption of their souls.

It is a difficult fight.