Approved Uses of Humor

Let's say for example one wants to write a song satirizing the ineffectualness of the efforts of "the West" to stem the global tide of murder, genocide, ethnic and religious tribalism and other such ills that result in mass graves being dug, furious denials being issued, interventions and investigations being conducted, and belated crimes-against-humanities trials for whatever leaders or figureheads best put themselves forth as candidates for sacrificial goat duty.

Suppose one decides to take the approach of castigating the efforts of virtuous interventionist Westerners by depicting a couple of moral adventurers in love with their own idealism, and desirous of taking risks for the sake of justice in all sorts of exciting locales. Like tourists with a conscience, sort of.

Suppose that one decides a good way to do it would be to take the breezy Beach Boys anthem "Kokomo" and recast it as "Kosovo" - taking advantage of the frisson created by the juxtaposition of activism and hedonism, replacing the long lists of languid beach resorts and tourist destinations with a death roll of global atrocity sites.

The result could look like this: this

Now, even as a joke, one can call this example HIGHLY OFFENSIVE in any number of ways!

It denigrates the efforts and motives of the truly sincere and virtuous humanitarians who put themselves in harm's way, all in the name of a good cause. Unfair!

It uses the sites of atrocities and the slaughter of countless as a springboard for "humor". Appalling!

But the perpetrator of such a sick joke may say that such criticisms miss the point: that the peacekeeping efforts of "the West" are misguided, ineffectual, take far too long to start, don't solve the problem once they get there, and in the final analysis, do less to help a troubled region than a vigorous influx of tourist dollars would have done (if it had come and flushed the local economy's coffers prior to the outbreak of violence, that is).

Of course, there are plenty of good objections to the above as well, such as the ever-popular "Well what's YOUR solution then?"

But the point is, some of the most appalling things that exist in the world and in the human soul are also the most urgently in need of being spotlighted, of having their wrongness addressed. And sick jokes and satire - as unpleasant as they are - can sometimes cut to the core on a wicked sharp line, exposing some well-chosen aspect of a problem in a more visceral way than the most sober and thoughtful dissertation can.

And this is why no wrong, no hurt or wound or crime, no propensity or actuality of murder, rape, or atrocity no matter the scope or scale, can ever be ruled beyond the pale. Because the holocaust didn't actually end. It metastasized. And the worst of human nature has found, finds and will always find expression, in every place and times. The holocaust has in a very real way always been with us. The sickest sickness a human being can be capable of is sitting deep, so deep in each and all of us as to need always and urgently exposure. To be caught, brought up to light and reviled, using all tools available to us.

Humor is a powerful tool against complacency and injustice. Some have claimed: the most powerful tool. There can be no target called exempt. There can be no evil given a free pass, spared from ridicule, without harming whatever chance we might have against it. Well okay: a lot of people don't want to deal with the unpleasant. Don't want to face it.

Goodie for them. Who does?