Great article!

Horace Walpole wrote, way back in the 18th Century no less, that, “Life is a tragedy to those who feel; a comedy to those who think.”

Too much of the scolds’ efforts in the ‘woke-o-sphere’ (wonderful turn of phrase) are catering to those who feel, without catering to those who think, and in that process setting up a dangerous puritanical, and therefore patronizing, if not tragic precedent:

The inability to laugh at — if not with — oneself.

And in that process of becoming the laugh police, this mob loses sight of one of the most important aspects of being human: the appreciation for irony in helping us all overcome the dangers of taking ourselves far too seriously.

Even worse, if they just operated in a bubble-like sphere, and sat in judgement as the arbiters of morality amongst just themselves, then that would be tolerable: their behavior would just be adding to the definition of ‘dour’: “someone who is relentlessly severe, stern, or gloomy in manner or appearance.’’

But as the media, political parties, companies and lamentably universities respond to these ‘outrage mobs’, they become a danger not only to their causes, in many cases absolutely just ones, but also a danger to the dialogue necessary to bring about change, and lastly they become a danger to comedy, all by setting about a ‘reign-of-terror’ modality which demands the heads of those who would dare to offend.

And in that censorious process, many fail to see that to silence our tricksters, our jesters, those who in many cases carry a sacred role, to offend if not challenge us and our orthodoxies, and most assuredly our ‘leaders’, is treading the path of hubris.

Any culture which does not support the need to occasionally ‘lighten up’, and laugh at itself, can lead many, especially those outside of a ‘sphere’ or movement, to develop ‘empathy fatigue’ for those who have been marginalized.

And I think that would be a tragedy.