Politics The Value of Monkey Laughter
posted by on November 13 at 12:31 PM
The mood of the moment, which flows from the recent puncture casued by the mid-term elections, is much like the mood of that memorable scene in the movie The Wizard of Oz: After the green witch has melted to nothing, there is much laughter in the air—her monster/monkey soldiers are elated, her death has liberated them. Bush is our witch, the election was his melting, and the cheerfullness of the monkey guards is the same cheerfulness that flows through this news report.
But hold up, wait a minute: Is this not the laughter of cowards, of slaves? What is the real value of a laughter that is only expressed after the oppressor of that laughter is rendered harmless? Now we are free to laugh at the absurdity of “Mission Accomplished,” now we laugh at the buffoonery of Rummy and Rove. If our joy is to be more than that of jackals then, as the Marxist philosopher Nic Veroli pointed out in the earlier part of this decade, our sense of joy must be there always, even during hard times.
colbert and stewart.
From a book on cheerfulness:
"God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. How shall we, murderers of all murderers, console ourselves? That which was the holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet possessed has bled to death under our knives. Who will wipe this blood off us? With what water could we purify ourselves? What festivals of atonement, what sacred games shall we need to invent? Is not the greatness of this deed too great for us? Must we not ourselves become gods simply to be worthy of it?"
— Nietzsche, The Gay Science, Section 125, tr. Walter Kaufmann
Charles, a great many of us have been laughing at these fools all along. It's the reasson for the popularity of Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert.
sterwart and colber, fine. but what i had in mind was a more general mood.
So dreamy and poetic Charles. You've taught me soooo... much. And I do owe you a payback. I used to respect our American Soldiers in Iraq, then you pointed out that any American soldier in Iraq is a coward, the real heros are men like Watada.
Charles,
No, seriously. I guarantee that many people were laughing at the administration long before the midterms made it 'harmless'- which, honestly, it's not, not yet- and to class those who weren't as 'cowards and slaves' is to do them a grave disservice. It seems like you're trying a little too hard to make this event fit into the wrong philosophical mold.
The "jackles" are laughing at your spelling.
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!!
i fixed jackals. thanks.
Now fix cheerfullness [sic]. Thanks.
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