Everyone should read this excellent article in defense of teasing. Bans on teasing and other forms of social communication are all part of -- and an enforcement of -- the post-existentialist, postmodernist world view that we are all socially isolated atoms. In the end, this is a dehumanizing ideology. Certainly it has brought us many good things, like attention to sexual harassment and bullying, which, as the author of the article points out, are not at all the same thing as teasing. It shows a suspension of judgment to insist that they are the same -- but then, postmodernism is all about suspending judgment as well. When postmodernism becomes politically correct bullying, as is the case with rules against teasing, laws against smoking in bars, etc., it poisons the well of humanity. If you want to believe that we are all socially alienated atoms amongst true communication with others is impossible, that's your business. But don't force it down the throat of all the rest of us who know better.
I"m increasingly convinced that one of the key features of postmodernism is its humorlessness. Even with people, like Kurt Vonnegut, who use humor in their work. Now there's a postmodern ironic stance for you: humorless humor. Yet how can you read someone like Vonnegut and not come away with that opinion of him? And while it seems that most postmodernists are on the Left, such as the ever-increasingly humorless Al Franken and Jeneane Garaffalo, the Right-leaning neocons aren't exactly the exemplars of humor (Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity are decidedly not neocons, by the way). Teasing is a form of humor -- thus the postmodernist must ban it, since it is nothing like them, and nothing they seem to understand.
Even more importantly, the author suggests something very interesting: teasing and poetry both have the same origin, in ritual designed to stave off aggression. Ironically, then, the attempts to get rid of teasing to stave off violence are likely actually causing aggression to become violence.
My objections to postmodernism come from someone on the other side of it. I see postmodernism as a necessary stage to go through -- in this sense, postmodernism is much like the metaphor Nietzsche gave of virtue being a tree: the taller the tree, higher the limbs of virtue, the deeper the roots of evil. Postmodernism is a necessary evil to pass through to get to a better, more virtuous, more beautiful existence. One must descend lowest to ascend highest. Unfortunately, the postmodernists don't realize they are in Hell -- and worse, being in Hell, they are busy making life Hell for everyone else.
4 comments:
RE: Vonnegut, I think it depends on the book. Slaughterhouse 5 has some genuine humour in it. Breakfast of Champions not so much.
That's a great article. Unfortunately I think the subtle distinction between healthy and unhealthy teasing may be beyond the grasp of many education professionals today, just as many of the previous generation of educators dismissed a lot of hurtful bullying as mere "kids will be kids" teasing.
Same thing with Franken and Garaffalo -- used to be funny, but after a while, not so much. But what I'm getting at is this: there are parts of "Galapagos," for example, which are funny and will make you laugh, but the novel as a whole is humorless.
The thing with bullying is that it is in fact aggressive to the point of violence. Many of the same people who look to stifle teasing are the same people whose social theories are based on the ideas of people like Heidegger, Zizek, at al who actually advocate(d) violence. Makes me wonder.
Postmodernism is perhaps characterised by irony rather than humour - a kind of knowingness, an obligation to dissect the reference-that-is-the-joke (and it nearly always is a reference, be it an Internet meme or a dropped quotation from Wilde or Python) and demonstrate one's cleverness in constructing it, which of course ensures the gag is stillborn. The humorous reference needs to be uncited and unresearched in order for its context to give it humour. If everyone's looking for the Reason it's Clever, nobody has the time to laugh.
As far as bullying and teasing go, I didn't get over being bullied until I learned how to tease. There's subtle distinction for you.
So many postmodernisms, so little time. There's pomo as a literary style, and pomo as a world view. Of course, those who practice, the first have the latter, though not everyone who have the latter necessarily practice the former (for one, not everyone is a writer, after all). And, of course, irony does not belong solely to the postmodern writers -- they just think it does.
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