Attn: Fools! Jesters! Mockers!
Jun. 26th, 2004 06:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
reenkaI like being disagreed with-- it's a challenge, it's energizing and so on. I don't like being mocked or discounted as a person, because like, I'm sensitive like that, but again, I only really care if I care about you. I also tend to care a bit about the opinion of anyone I consider intelligent or funny or talented. I draw a line between mocking my personality or appearance (in a mean-spirited rather than teasing way) and mocking my beliefs or statements or actions (or fic! don't forget you're free to mock my fics!)-- you can go ahead and mock those. I'll mock them first, anyway. I believe self-mockery is essential for mental health, actually, ahahah. I mean, they used to call it "humility", but what it really is is self-mockery.
I mean, if you can't laugh at yourself, you're really in trouble, 'cause odds are other people are laughing at you anyway, and it hurts more that way.
I keep seeing people talk about the problems with a culture of agreement-- the Cult of Nice-- and then seeing the myriad problems that arise from the Cult of Mock. Both have their deep issues-- in that the nicey-nice people are basically often dishonest (if not blatantly hypocritical) and possibly unhelpful to one's possibilities of progress as a writer (in the case of fanfic crit, anyway), while the mockety-mock people are soooo obsessed with everything being superficially 'funny' that they wear it like a mask over their humanity the same way the nicey-nice people wear their niceness. So really, the hypocrisy cuts both ways, which a lot of the mockers realize, but that's not enough. If you realize you're basically bullshitting, that doesn't actually excuse you from it. There's the rub.
I think the reason so many people are leery of mass mockery is because it's too easy for human beings to get out of control. People forget why they do what they do-- they just do it by force of habit, and then random people join in because it's the 'Cool Now Thing', and then all hell breaks loose 'cause people think they have a free ticket to piss off whoever's closest. People in general are often vicious beasts when uncontrolled by their higher brains-- i.e., when they're not thinking. So a lot of people would rather the unthinking masses in question just nodded along and played nicely-- it's much easier to go along with one's business that way, isn't it?
It's funny because in the beginning, small, rebellious bands of people mock 'The Establishment' or whatever and it's a 'statement'-- and then the statement becomes too successful and edges into its own (stagnant & unquestioned) dogma and its own Establishment: witness the elite split-off faction of Fandom Wank, itself a former split-off faction of livejournal. Being popular is every intelligentsia's downfall.
I believe very strongly in the ideals behind intelligent disagreement-- whether it takes the form of debate, discussion or outright mockery. I believe it's kind of a process of sloughing off the dead meme-cells in your brain-- you end up cleaner and healthier with the mental scrubbing. But! When people hide behind the mockery (as I keep seeing anytime a little fandom culture of it puts down a few roots), they forget the 'intelligent' part of the mockery. If you're being 100% obsessed with 'Teh Funneh' to the point where you think -everything- is 'Teh Funneh' (as in the usual Fandom Wank refrain of "fandom is fucking funny"), you obliterate the actual intelligence (and the balls) involved in judging what's actually -worthy- of mockery.
I mean, if you mock things just because they're there, then what kind of idiot are -you-, basically? How are you different from the idiots that -worship- and accept things "just because it's there"??
It seems that most(?) people think that self-mockery and The Mockery Of The Stupid in general is basically a fun thing to do, no real emotion involved-- like a gesture you make, but it doesn't really mean anything. You can act like you're self-deprecating, but really you just keep on doing what you're doing (because it's easiest to shut up when among your own clique) and being a yes-man to whatever messed up conspiracy your Feared Leader springs up today. (And of course there's no "Feared Leader" of the Elite Wankers or whoever-- it's yet another 'funny little joke'). What I object to is not the unfunniness of this (as far as I can tell), but the sheer fakery involved.
And please, don't think I'm picking on some stupid recent example in particular-- there are so many vague examples of people who take the Cult of Mockery too seriously (in that they become utterly fake), in fandom and in the mass media in the US anyway.
This reminds me that the "intelligentsia" were always like this: sitting there and laughing like hyenas at the stupidity and decay of whatever society they're within, their anger ultimately ineffectual-- or rather, an affectation. "It was all a joke" is basically the credo of bored (often rich) Clubs Of Mock in boarding schools everywhere, I'm sure. It's a tradition! In fact, the Marauders, I think, are just sort of a smart-boy-group stereotype in this respect-- rich kids with passions and ideals with no real outlet, so they just pick on whatever's the easiest target to feel all Elite and Superior. And in the case of the Marauders, the irony is that their target grows up to out-mock the mockers as a lifestyle, even while the originals did get a clue, it seems. The cycle continues.
Mind you, I'm picking on the perpetually disaffected (in the case of Fandom Wank, I'd say 'dramatically disaffected') 'Mocking Intelligentsia' bit of the mini-society of 'Fandom' because for all intents and purposes? I'm part of it. I don't usually make a sport (so British!) of The Mock, though-- that's the only difference. Because goddammit, real mockery does in fact stem from real emotion-- from a real frustration at things, a hatred of stupid, a zeal for quality or whatever-- there's some sort of thwarted idealism there at heart, and I know it because I feel it. I'm one of 'Them' or 'You' or whatever you want to call it.
The nicey-nice masses of the Politically Correct, 'respect'-obsessed society -want- to be able to point fingers at the 'mocking fringe' and say, 'look! Look! They're fools! That's all they are! They eat their own young and they have nothing important to say; they don't have bloody -feelings-!' It makes it all right to revel in all their self-righteous back-patting and 'there there' cooing and all the rest of it! So we sit there and laugh because what do they know, but they're on to something! They may not see their own fakery, but they can see -ours-! And that's not funny!
Heyo, watch me take myself too seriously; the vital element, though, is that I'm just being sincere, so to mock me with insincerity would be to mock yourself. If you mock me, all I want is that you mock me and you mean it. If you do something that messes with people's feelings? You should mean it, that's all.
But then, I never cared much for sport of any kind, physical or intellectual-- perhaps that's it. I laugh, I write, I read and I play-- but 'sport' implies a sort of forced lightness that bothers me. It's premeditated-- and in terms of mockery, it's inherently wanky. Basically, if you consciously sit there and view the world through the Glasses of Mock, then you become a little bit like Kai, from The Snow Queen, with a tiny bit of the Magic Mirror of hatred and discontent and lies wedged in your eyes.
What I'm saying is, Jaded is a form of Stupid.
If you're not laughing at things with some center of you still grounded in actual understanding of the problem you're making light of, your mockery has no real validity, for one cannot truly speak of things one doesn't understand.
In the end, I believe that mockery shouldn't always have to be a superficial thing, forcibly divorced from empathy and higher feelings. I believe that the job of a Fool (or Jester) in society at large-- or in a mini-society like fandom-- is deeply essential. I respect people who can truly find a workable, intelligent balance between sharp, biting humor and compassion probably more than I respect any other quality in a human being. It just upsets me to see this ideal be completely missing in the Culture of Mock I see at large. It speaks of the same lack of intelligence the people are supposedly meant to mock. And that's all I have to say about that.
P.S. I wasn't -trying- to make this post funny, btw. Ahahaha, BUT I COULD IF I WANTED TO :P
/immature
P.P.S. Aaaack!!1 ZS' Ronfic, aaaaaaack, the Ronlove, am dead <33333333333333333 (I seriously think I'm starting to resent H/D fluff or something, which is like resenting fluffy kittens-- which I -love-, btw-- but there you have it.... Can't seem to get away from the 'inner rage', heh. Good H/D angst, man. It's what's for dinner.)
I mean, if you can't laugh at yourself, you're really in trouble, 'cause odds are other people are laughing at you anyway, and it hurts more that way.
I keep seeing people talk about the problems with a culture of agreement-- the Cult of Nice-- and then seeing the myriad problems that arise from the Cult of Mock. Both have their deep issues-- in that the nicey-nice people are basically often dishonest (if not blatantly hypocritical) and possibly unhelpful to one's possibilities of progress as a writer (in the case of fanfic crit, anyway), while the mockety-mock people are soooo obsessed with everything being superficially 'funny' that they wear it like a mask over their humanity the same way the nicey-nice people wear their niceness. So really, the hypocrisy cuts both ways, which a lot of the mockers realize, but that's not enough. If you realize you're basically bullshitting, that doesn't actually excuse you from it. There's the rub.
I think the reason so many people are leery of mass mockery is because it's too easy for human beings to get out of control. People forget why they do what they do-- they just do it by force of habit, and then random people join in because it's the 'Cool Now Thing', and then all hell breaks loose 'cause people think they have a free ticket to piss off whoever's closest. People in general are often vicious beasts when uncontrolled by their higher brains-- i.e., when they're not thinking. So a lot of people would rather the unthinking masses in question just nodded along and played nicely-- it's much easier to go along with one's business that way, isn't it?
It's funny because in the beginning, small, rebellious bands of people mock 'The Establishment' or whatever and it's a 'statement'-- and then the statement becomes too successful and edges into its own (stagnant & unquestioned) dogma and its own Establishment: witness the elite split-off faction of Fandom Wank, itself a former split-off faction of livejournal. Being popular is every intelligentsia's downfall.
I believe very strongly in the ideals behind intelligent disagreement-- whether it takes the form of debate, discussion or outright mockery. I believe it's kind of a process of sloughing off the dead meme-cells in your brain-- you end up cleaner and healthier with the mental scrubbing. But! When people hide behind the mockery (as I keep seeing anytime a little fandom culture of it puts down a few roots), they forget the 'intelligent' part of the mockery. If you're being 100% obsessed with 'Teh Funneh' to the point where you think -everything- is 'Teh Funneh' (as in the usual Fandom Wank refrain of "fandom is fucking funny"), you obliterate the actual intelligence (and the balls) involved in judging what's actually -worthy- of mockery.
I mean, if you mock things just because they're there, then what kind of idiot are -you-, basically? How are you different from the idiots that -worship- and accept things "just because it's there"??
It seems that most(?) people think that self-mockery and The Mockery Of The Stupid in general is basically a fun thing to do, no real emotion involved-- like a gesture you make, but it doesn't really mean anything. You can act like you're self-deprecating, but really you just keep on doing what you're doing (because it's easiest to shut up when among your own clique) and being a yes-man to whatever messed up conspiracy your Feared Leader springs up today. (And of course there's no "Feared Leader" of the Elite Wankers or whoever-- it's yet another 'funny little joke'). What I object to is not the unfunniness of this (as far as I can tell), but the sheer fakery involved.
And please, don't think I'm picking on some stupid recent example in particular-- there are so many vague examples of people who take the Cult of Mockery too seriously (in that they become utterly fake), in fandom and in the mass media in the US anyway.
This reminds me that the "intelligentsia" were always like this: sitting there and laughing like hyenas at the stupidity and decay of whatever society they're within, their anger ultimately ineffectual-- or rather, an affectation. "It was all a joke" is basically the credo of bored (often rich) Clubs Of Mock in boarding schools everywhere, I'm sure. It's a tradition! In fact, the Marauders, I think, are just sort of a smart-boy-group stereotype in this respect-- rich kids with passions and ideals with no real outlet, so they just pick on whatever's the easiest target to feel all Elite and Superior. And in the case of the Marauders, the irony is that their target grows up to out-mock the mockers as a lifestyle, even while the originals did get a clue, it seems. The cycle continues.
Mind you, I'm picking on the perpetually disaffected (in the case of Fandom Wank, I'd say 'dramatically disaffected') 'Mocking Intelligentsia' bit of the mini-society of 'Fandom' because for all intents and purposes? I'm part of it. I don't usually make a sport (so British!) of The Mock, though-- that's the only difference. Because goddammit, real mockery does in fact stem from real emotion-- from a real frustration at things, a hatred of stupid, a zeal for quality or whatever-- there's some sort of thwarted idealism there at heart, and I know it because I feel it. I'm one of 'Them' or 'You' or whatever you want to call it.
The nicey-nice masses of the Politically Correct, 'respect'-obsessed society -want- to be able to point fingers at the 'mocking fringe' and say, 'look! Look! They're fools! That's all they are! They eat their own young and they have nothing important to say; they don't have bloody -feelings-!' It makes it all right to revel in all their self-righteous back-patting and 'there there' cooing and all the rest of it! So we sit there and laugh because what do they know, but they're on to something! They may not see their own fakery, but they can see -ours-! And that's not funny!
Heyo, watch me take myself too seriously; the vital element, though, is that I'm just being sincere, so to mock me with insincerity would be to mock yourself. If you mock me, all I want is that you mock me and you mean it. If you do something that messes with people's feelings? You should mean it, that's all.
But then, I never cared much for sport of any kind, physical or intellectual-- perhaps that's it. I laugh, I write, I read and I play-- but 'sport' implies a sort of forced lightness that bothers me. It's premeditated-- and in terms of mockery, it's inherently wanky. Basically, if you consciously sit there and view the world through the Glasses of Mock, then you become a little bit like Kai, from The Snow Queen, with a tiny bit of the Magic Mirror of hatred and discontent and lies wedged in your eyes.
What I'm saying is, Jaded is a form of Stupid.
If you're not laughing at things with some center of you still grounded in actual understanding of the problem you're making light of, your mockery has no real validity, for one cannot truly speak of things one doesn't understand.
In the end, I believe that mockery shouldn't always have to be a superficial thing, forcibly divorced from empathy and higher feelings. I believe that the job of a Fool (or Jester) in society at large-- or in a mini-society like fandom-- is deeply essential. I respect people who can truly find a workable, intelligent balance between sharp, biting humor and compassion probably more than I respect any other quality in a human being. It just upsets me to see this ideal be completely missing in the Culture of Mock I see at large. It speaks of the same lack of intelligence the people are supposedly meant to mock. And that's all I have to say about that.
P.S. I wasn't -trying- to make this post funny, btw. Ahahaha, BUT I COULD IF I WANTED TO :P
/immature
P.P.S. Aaaack!!1 ZS' Ronfic, aaaaaaack, the Ronlove, am dead <33333333333333333 (I seriously think I'm starting to resent H/D fluff or something, which is like resenting fluffy kittens-- which I -love-, btw-- but there you have it.... Can't seem to get away from the 'inner rage', heh. Good H/D angst, man. It's what's for dinner.)
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Date: 2004-06-27 01:20 pm (UTC)I think there's nice and there's kind and there's honest. If you manage honest, especially honest with yourself, then it's the best kind of good.