In “I Was a Tool of Satan”, an article by Doug Marlette, the author raises two questions – censorship and the consequences of the lack of it. When his cartoon with the caption “What Would Mohammed Drive” was published on an online page of The Tallahassee it triggered a series of complaints, some going as far to threaten the author’s life. In his response “With All Due Respect, an Apology Is Not Needed”, Marlette pointed out that his attack was not aimed at the religion of Islam, rather the fanatics of the Muslim religion.
The central point of the article is undoubtedly the author’s opinion on the freedom of speech guaranteed by the First Amendment. Not only does he describe today’s society as ruled by an “anti-intellectual mobocracy”, but he even goes on to describe today’s censorship masked by “marketing surveys and focus-group findings”. He describes his sort, that of political cartoonists as on the verge of extinction, caused by a mock-sensitivity which allows misinterpretation to become a cause for threats.
The question the reader is left with is that which should, perhaps, not even be posed. Isn’t art supposed to comment on reality? If any author must contain his comments about his society in fear of his life, then perhaps this same society is undermining one of the most important human rights: that of free opinionation.
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