The responses and tributes after a tragedy usually run the gamut between offensive, emotional, and—every so often—profound. So far there hasn’t been a corporation asking people to remember the dead by buying SpaghettiOs or getting a data plan at AT&T, as has happened in the past. However, the Republicans have been doing their best to pick up the slack in the idiot Olympics with appeals to xenophobia, short-sighted political measures that play to the worst fears, and calling for going above and beyond just “bombing the shit out of” ISIS to some new unknown John McCain level of death and destruction.
In the world of entertainment, there have also been various reactions. Irish rock band U2 placed flowers on a Paris memorial, with lead singer Bono calling the incident the “first direct hit on music” by terrorists. Madonna broke down on stage while paying tribute to the victims. Actor Rob Lowe got in hot water after criticizing France’s immigration policies and French President Francois Hollande shortly after the attacks. Director Guillermo del Toro shared the story of his father’s kidnapping and being held hostage to warn against violence begetting violence and adding even deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Saturday Night Live began this week’s broadcast by skipping the cold open sketch, and instead cast member Cecily Strong told the audience: “Paris is the city of light. And here in New York City, we know that light will never go out.” Late Show host Stephen Colbert noticeably held back tears discussing the attack during his Friday taping. Bill Maher argued the attacks are another example of religion feeding extremism, and criticized liberals for not speaking up against Islamic fundamentalism, while posing the question: “Why do they hate us?” Jay Leno’s answer to that question went the “they hate us for our freedom” route, with a response that involved Star Trek and alien natives refusing Captain Kirk’s offer of democracy.
However, HBO’s John Oliver seemed to hit all the right notes with a statement that’s gone viral and basically boils down to a giant “fuck you” to the people responsible. Watch the video below.
So here is where things stand: First, as of now, we know this attack was carried out by gigantic fucking assholes—unconscionable flaming assholes—possibly working with other fucking assholes, definitely working in service of an ideology of pure assholery … Second, and this goes almost without saying, FUCK THESE ASSHOLES! Fuck ’em, if I may say, sideways.”
“And third, it is important to remember nothing about what these assholes are trying to do is going to work. France is going to endure. And I’ll tell you why: If you’re in a war of culture and lifestyle with France, good fucking luck! Because go ahead, bring your bankrupt ideology; they’ll bring Jean-Paul Sartre, Edith Piaf, fine wine, Gauloises cigarettes, Camus, Camembert, madeleines, macarons, Marcel Proust, and the fucking croque-en-bouche. The croque-en-bouche! You’ve just brought a philosophy of rigorous self-abnegation to a pastry fight, my friends! You are fucked! That [croque-en-bouche] is a French freedom tower!”
“So, to the people of France, our thoughts are truly with you and I do not doubt that there will be more to say about this as events unspool, but for now, we are going to continue with the rest of our show…”
We are fighting an enemy that has already lost—they just don’t know it yet. Because the only thing dumber than a “War on Terror” is a war on a lifestyle or a war on a culture. There is no conceivable future where the world will ever be brought back to “a seventh-century legal environment” for the shits and giggles of fundamentalists, no matter what their religious affiliation might be. If ISIS killed a hundred more people tomorrow, or even a thousand, or ten-thousand, it would not change that fundamental fact. And they will still be living and dying in some shithole, while we endure.
So the only question becomes how far we go as a society, as a culture, in declaring a “victory” we already possess. Whether our enemies come to that realization on their own, or if it comes through an epiphany while being on the receiving end of a Hellfire missile, the hard fact of these sorts of tragedies is that ISIS and the rest of their ilk only have the power to move western civilization if we give it to them. Because those that want to turn away those in need because of prejudice, or start requiring religious tests and shutting down places of worship in the name of national security, are giving the enemy exactly what they want.
There are those out there who want to destroy the society we’ve built, but they can’t. And we shouldn’t do it for them.