The Attack on Charlie Hebdo

Twelve were killed at a French satirical newspaper called Charlie Hebdo.  It was targeted by Islamic terrorists, because the staff published caricatures of Mohammed.

While this was far from the most deadly terrorist attack, it may turn out to be one of the most significant. Although the attack is much different from the Sony hack, it's inspiring a similar response: People aren't standing for it.

John Minchillo / Associated Press

As a society, we are not willing to die for freedom of speech - yet - but we are becoming very concerned about infringement on freedoms. Theaters not willing to show The Interview led to Sony Pictures pulling the film from distribution, which led to people objecting to it, which led to it being released anyway. And now this attack has led many more people to Charlie Hebdo's site, to what they do - to the very images which the attackers opposed.

This is also known as the Streisand Effect: Barbra objected to a picture of her house being included in a web-based survey of the California coastline. She threatened to sue, not wanting everyone in the world to know exactly what her house looked like. Unfortunately, this led to the lawsuit being published in newspapers, which led people to the survey, which led to many more people gaining access to this information. Sony says it won't show a movie, so everyone demands it be shown. And an obscure French satire site displaying pictures that nobody would really have cared about, is now getting . And those caricatures? Available all over the Internet, and soon to be on t-shirts.

The question comes up sometimes: How can the coddled, protected Heroes become the saviors of civilization? They've never known suffering, they don't have inherent moral strength, they never had to be strong and tough....but they do know what they have, and they trust in their friends, and they know their friends have their backs, too.  Millennials who have been able to express themselves - pamphleteers of everything they think or act or do - appear to take this seriously, perhaps enough to war against it. The war may be starting already.