Philosopher of Law Ronald Dworkin has a very nice short piece in the NYRB about the Danish cartoon debacle, The Right to Ridicule. It basically recaps about all the things smart people have said about this episode, but in a concise manner. For example, he leads off by noting that "Reprinting would very likely have meant—and could still mean—more people killed and more property destroyed." But he goes on to consider the risk that this "will be wrongly taken as an endorsement of the widely held opinion that freedom of speech has limits, that it must be balanced against the virtues of 'multiculturalism,'" and hails free speech as necessary for a democracy. If (like me) you were dismayed by this whole affair but remained unclear on what to think about it, Dworkin offers clear and forceful arguments for distinguishing why the international printing of the cartoons in solidarity was ridiculous, from why their printing should be defended in principle.

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