Here’s my column in The Freethinker.

It’s about all this inquisitioning going on.

Remember the Inquisition? Those were fun times.

Being alive now is being subject to a roving freelance Inquisition that can grab us at any time, as if we were 13th century Cathars. I feel pretty safe where I am, but with a freelance Inquisition one just never knows. If they did pounce, and pause to question me as opposed to opening fire on sight, I would be guilty on so many charges. Everyone I know would be. We all break the rules of obedience and submission every minute of every day.

Those people in Paris broke so many of those rules. They were out in public in mixed company – women and men together, as if all of Paris were a giant whorehouse. They were having a good time instead of knocking their heads on the ground. They were drinking and eating, they were listening to music, they were watching half-naked men kick a ball around. They were doing it in Paris, home of pagans and crusaders – and of blasphemers, anti-clericals, enlighteners, thinkers, talkers.

They were doing things we get to do. We’re allowed to go out, we’re allowed to have fun, we’re allowed to eat and drink and get giddy at concerts. We’re also allowed to blaspheme and to resist the clerics.