Political/Moral Correctness
The clip below interests me in an age of concern about political correctness from both sides of the issue. In most cases I just try to use the Golden Rule. If my comments are going to upset other races, other religious groups, I just don’t say them, at least in a public venue. . I don’t think I have ever been much interested in pitting any group against another to any great extent. Part of the reason may be that if one taught college students for a lifetime, all the targeted groups (which is all groups) have individuals who fit the generalization being used to insult the whole group. Does this mean we can’t make fun of human behaviors? That would really be impossible. I find humor in almost any human behavior. A lot of sexual behaviors are just funny, well maybe all of it is short of rape, and this is exactly why sexual acts are often center stage for comedians. My mother used to say, “that’s not funny” and I would say, “Yes it is because it has no connection to reality. For example, one time riding along, a local Rotary Club or some such club was at a red light intersection with their cups out. I said to my mother, “Ok, mother, I will run over one of these pests and you get out and stomp on their head.” I would say this is funny because I am not going to run them over and my mother is not going to stomp on their head. Absurdity is usually funny to me.
I have more than my share of personal peculiarities, and am sure plenty of people get laughs from making fun of them. I laugh at myself often. Why can’t others? But what about those in public places when an unkind remark about some ethnic group dooms them career-wise for it? Shouldn’t the person in the URL below suffer the same doom career-wise? Should a person ever make a joke about fat people or gays or the ugly or the dumb, or those of a different culture or race? I like to tell a really tall person in public “Don’t stand next to me, someone will think I am a midget”. People always laugh. Who is being made fun of here? Extremes are almost always funny. Jokes about those fortunate enough to have a promiscuous life are as numerous as the jokes about those unattractive enough to have little or no sex. Even more illogical, if someone attractive agrees to have sex with someone unattractive for money why do we get so angry? If sex is such a good thing, shouldn’t we be happy that someone unattractive manages to find a sex partner without arresting them? What about trophy wives (anyone come to mind?), isn’t that sex for money? On many issues we are simply all mixed up, self serving, and prejudice.
The video below is one of my favorite comedians, so is Chris Rock simply because they say the most blunt things about so many topics and get away with it. Their careers are not ruined. Don Rickles would say the nastiest things about someone and made a career out of it. The secret is that people can say many things and have it come across as humorous because we all know they themselves live a life of ‘live and let live’.
Many people use humor as a cover-up to what they really think about certain people or groups. All the controversy around the ‘Washington Redskins’ can be solved easy enough. If most or many Indians feel insulted, then just don’t use that name. That is the Golden Rule in action. I suppose it is just coincidence that no team is named ‘the White Skins’. When did the Washington Redskins ever have a genuine American Indian on their team? Even more ironic: When did the Indians ever win many battles? And why would the ones using an insulting term to some other groups get to settle the argument on their terms? I myself am not in the clear here but have improved over time. If someone says to us that they don’t like to be called Steve, but Stephen—on what ethical basis, using the Golden Rule, would we refuse their request? Isn’t it rather obnoxious to retort that “I don’t mean any disrespect calling you Steve, so I will continue to do so.”
In the video at the end, some pretty crude and extremely hurtful jokes are made about fat people. I laugh at these jokes even though I know as a physiologist that most people who are fat do not have a lot of control over it. Even when people say that fatness is a matter of will power, they simply don’t understand that will power is mostly an inherited trait—it can be measured, and and the amount of willpower will decrease over time. If it is an inherited trait how can this be altered? When it is not a willpower thing, then it will be a medical matter. Some people can eat little and still gain a lot of weight. Some people cannot gain weight even if they are paid to do so. And usually if a person is paid to become overweight they lose it with no problem when the pay stops. Some people have better control mechanisms over weight control, some people have higher absorption rates in the intestine, a person’ emotional state may be a strong factor—people who are depressed tend to eat more, people living in American ghettoes are much more likely to be overweight that those who live in a wealthy family, etc. For one thing, people in our ghettoes often have little else to think about except what they are going to have for the next meal, whereas a wealthy person is busy thinking about which stocks to buy, or matters that pertain to the maintenance of all the things they possess, etc. Not as much time to think about food.
Knowing all this why do I laugh at Carlin’s comments about fat people? I think most people who are fat realize this doesn’t improve their looks, at least in the eyes of most people. And their realization of this would be the same regardless if any fat jokes were ever told by anyone in any circumstances.When I was teaching college students, some faculty were clearly prejudice against, let’s say, black people. They would be meticulous in their classes not to use any words which would offend blacks but the truth is blacks would see through their facade with ease. All of us have different personalities and we know rather quickly who does not appreciate our personality.
Probably most prejudices are in degrees and no religious, ethnic, cultural, or physically distinguishable features are free from ridicule. In some strange way the least prejudice someone is the more they can make jokes about sensitive issues and no one be offended. I once said to a daytime class that I felt sorry for evening students who, after working all day, had to come to class in the evening and sit through a 3hr lecture. One gal raised her hand and protested: “What about those of us who work evenings?” I smiled and said “Which corner do you work on evenings?” The whole class laughed and the girl, who was black, simply said “I can’t believe you said that”. Some black student out in the hall way heard the comment (I used a microphone in class) and reported it. I simply had the whole class take out a piece of paper and indicate whether my response would have been different no matter who make the same comment. No-one in the large class said my response would have been different depending on who had said it and that I was just being funny. I took that as a compliment.
I wonder what a fat person would feel or say hearing the jokes in the video about fat people or if they were in the audience.? I can’t know the answer to that, but no one sues or demands Carlin be blacklisted in his career. If a person running for government office had said the same things in public 20 years earlier, he/she is likely to be forced to resign from the race. I guess the difference is that a politician, in theory, is suppose to bring diverse groups together, so they can’t have a history of making fun of any particular group. There is sense to that. George Carlin and Chris Rock make a living making fun of every group, whatever will generate a laugh.
Why should prejudice be punished in a free democracy? Why can’t we all be Trumpish and speak out using our ‘gut feelings’ about certain groups in our society? The reason is two fold: individuals who do this destabilize their own society, violence accelerates. Too often, globally some minority group has to flee from their own country, and end up in refugee tent camps. With some 75 million refugees globally now, other countries can no longer absorb them for reasonable enough reasons. Sadly, those countries who force minorities of some sort to flee, so far receive no global penalty. They certainly should.
Realistically, we can always find individuals in every ethnic, cultural, religious group who are despicable individuals as judged by their non-adherence to the universal ethical principle the Golden Rule. To my knowledge comedians like George Carlin, Chris Rock, and Don Rickles are not known to treat others of any ilk poorly. Depending on the particular moment, these kind of comedians make humans of all ilk seem irrational and defective. When their monologues are over there is no reason for someone to feel hostile toward the subjects of their humor.
If this musing rambles, it is by the difficult nuances of the topic. Political correctness is far easier to settle. If one defines the best government as that government which maximizes contentment for the maximum number of citizens, then political correctness involves all the government measures in effect for this to be true. Thus, for example, when someone is against all workers making a living wage, irregardless of the reality that this cannot be totally achieved, they are not only politically incorrect but morally incorrect. On the other hand, if someone argues that capitalism best meets an objective while someone else argues that socialism best meets an objective, there is no moral argument, just a political argument.
Life is unfair. We all know that. We cannot pretend that being ugly, being fat, being in a sexual minority, an ethnic minority, a cultural minority, being raised in a ghetto, poor parenting, living in an unsafe neighborhood, being intellectually limited etc., is not a personal burden and often a genuine tragedy. Many humorous jokes start off with “A real ugly person enters….. A real fat person attempts…….a gay person says to……..a real dumb ass person asks……… A Catholic nun……etc. The jokes themselves are funny. Just ask Chris Rock or George Carlin ( not Carlin, he is dead).
It is really not a question of whether the jokes are funny, but just how individual treats and relates to the group in question. If no one ever utters an ugly person joke, the lives of the ugly will not change a bit. They still cannot ask the prom queen or king to the Prom. A fat gal is not going to win a beauty contest. A lot of people make a lot of money presenting workshops in which they train people to be happy and contented with their lives when the reality is otherwise. If you are ugly and poor, you can learn to live with that. That sounds like what the attractive and wealthy, as a group would say to the ugly and poor: “That’s life, live with it” or a doctor when they tell a person with cancer “Don’t worry about it”. Or conservatives when they say collectively say to the poor: “Go earn all things I got gifted by genetics, my formative years environment, my good health care, my safe neighborhood, my good schools and teachers, and by the good luck of having so many people help me along the way—yes you earn it by pulling yourself up by your bootstraps while I earned it the old fashioned way; genetics, environment, and good luck.
These workshops sometimes work, and that is also exactly why heroin (not referring to the lab created versions which are a different chemical and are not heroin) is effective since under heroin the person genuinely doesn’t care as much about the fact they are ugly and poor and cannot support their family. Heroin is not toxic and fatal unless one takes alcohol along with it, in which case breathing may be suppressed and the person then dies. In the former case the brain is trained via a workshop not to care and suffer so much from their situation, and in the latter case a drug changes the brain not to care and suffer so much from their situation. One is legal and the other is illegal. The extent to which citizens use either reflects just how contented citizens tend to be at the historical period in question. When 43% of adults don’t make enough money to qualify paying any income tax, we can kind of assume there are a lot of people out there discontented with their lives and see no light at the end of the tunnel. Not good.
So it seems we can view the video below and laugh. It is funny. But after we laugh it is how we treat others less fortunate in life that really matters.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLODGhEyLvk
