Apparently some of my former readers were Marxists.
They were offended enough to let me know and advise me that the title of the last Foolsletter was ‘problematic’ and that ‘re-colonize’ was ‘violent language’ and proposed a ‘dangerous idea.’
They are no longer with us.
No, not dead. I’m not that violent.
Their requests for a title change have been ignored, as such, they have moved their attention on to greener pastures.
Humour is chaotic, anarchic and turns systems on their heads. Humour disrupts peoples power and sense of certainty.
Most activists I’ve met are certain about the righteousness and legitimacy of their belief system.
This is true for people on both sides of any debate.
They love humour that makes fun of the other side, the ‘wrong thinkers’.
Otherwise known as the different people we need to figure out how to tolerate.
Humour and joking disrupts the righteousness that comes with believing that ‘wrong thinkers’ actually exist.
It takes mental flexibility to find joy levity and humour. Activism requires a person to be steadfast certain and mentally rigid in their belief in the righteousness and justice of the cause that they are pursuing.
Humour disrupts the idea that there is a right way to be and a right way to think. It’s pretty clear that when you are trying to convince the world to get behind your cause that humour is grit in your grease. It interferes with the activist machinery reaching its goal of melding the world according to their belief of what ‘should’ be.
This slows things down.
People who feel urgent to make change happen resent the slowing down.
Me?
Most of the choices I’ve made while feeling urgent have turned out to be poorly thought out, reactive and highly mediocre.
Activists acting urgently have similar proposals.
As such, bring out the grit of mockery.
Slow things down.
Make better choices.
And?
How many activists does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
It depends on how inclusive you want to be.
The first rule of humour is there are no rules. That's why we all love it.
I think a lot. Actually, that's a full sentence. But I think a lot about words. They are important to me as language is both subtle and a hammer. I find it funny that the people who argue to not ban books are also the ones who want to ban words.
It's complicated. People used the word "slave" to refer to having a computer component follow another. I remember where I was standing the first time i heard it used that way, my stomache clenching in a vomiting intensity. No one else seemed to care. It was used for quite some time before the word "tether" was used. It was an unnecessary use of an evil word. I breathed a sigh of relief when tether became the word du jour. Does that mean I want to eliminate the word slave? No. It is a word we need to use to address the evil that man has done and still does. We need to look at what we have done and continue to do and heal. Other casual uses of the word seem harmful and gratuitous.
Harmful + Gratuitous = Mean
But in humour, there are no rules. Humour, is like The Thunderdome, except two men enter and two men leave. What happens in the middle, is a sharing without rules. If the humour is well done, the two men will not be the same as when they entered.
Good humour connects us at the soul level. We feel like brothers having a shared experience at our core. No one said it would feel joyous. It would be real. And real is worth defending in a world of artifice.