Attn: Fools! Jesters! Mockers!
Jun. 26th, 2004 06:09 pmI 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?
( I mock the Mock! I am.... Ultra-Meta Girl!!1 )
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?
( I mock the Mock! I am.... Ultra-Meta Girl!!1 )
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.)
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}