Jesus never laughed: may the fool poke fun at God/the sacred/power?, page 2

Originally posted by halfoldman
Well, can anyone tell me a joke?
Something that would go down well in your millieu?

Question: Why is it that Politicians will never legalize Prostitution?
Answer: Because they don't want the extra competition.

The alternative to Humor is the other "H" word -- Hate. When one is either enlightened enough to understand how poisonous Hate towards others is to oneself, or is constrained by what is socially acceptable to modify their behavior to not express Hate, Humor becomes the healthy alternative.

How does that old saying go? "We used to hate people. Now we just make fun of them. It's more effective that way."

If you want to smear a Political opponent, you can dig up dirt on them, you can sling mud at them, but in the end, the best way to deal with them would be to show a sense of humor and make light of them. If people don't take them seriously, then they lose their draw they hold over public opinion.

So it is with anything else.

If the government wants to bury the truth about U.F.O.s, for instance, they could suppress that knowledge, refute any evidence to the contrary, and make those who leak information to the public disappear or die. They could even leak disinfo to the public to discredit them. However, in the end, the method that works best (as it doesn't involve anything immoral such as killing citizens or infringing upon their Constitutional Rights) is to make a mockery of the U.F.O. Community by laughing at them and making them the butt-end of jokes. The U.F.O. Community loses it's credibility with everyone outside of the U.F.O. Community, not through any wrong-doing of it's own, and the government has successfully safe-guarded their secrets knowing that even if something leaks out to the U.F.O. Community no one else will ever take it seriously.

When people feel oppressed by their government we turn our animosity into humor and rip apart our politicians euphemistically like scape-goats. We focus all our discontent in making politicians the subject of every joke we can imagine. Those that do it best turn it into viable careers. Is there any wonder that the Daily Show and the Colbert Report are considered more credible News than any of the MSM by Americans? It is because when presented with just the plain old news we get angry and hate, we become fearful and we feel powerless (none of which make us feel particularly good). However, when we our presented the news in satire and humorous commentary then it loses it's fearfulness, it loses it's power over us. We laugh it off and are able to put it into the proper perspective.

Personally, I believe that if there is a deity that can be defined with anthropomorphic traits, then he has to have a sense of humor and certainly wouldn't take offense at someone poking fun of them. If anything, they'd be laughing right alongside you if you made an irreverent joke about them.