{"id":2200,"date":"2012-10-29T17:16:42","date_gmt":"2012-10-29T21:16:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/badcatholic\/?p=2200"},"modified":"2012-10-29T19:20:00","modified_gmt":"2012-10-29T23:20:00","slug":"chesterton-shaw-and-the-effect-of-laughter-on-insult","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/badcatholic\/2012\/10\/chesterton-shaw-and-the-effect-of-laughter-on-insult.html","title":{"rendered":"Chesterton, Shaw, and the Effect of Laughter on Insult"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a>
If your homepage is r\/atheism, you know.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The Internet hath done wondrous deeds, but raising the intellectual bar cannot counted among them. This became clear when I realized the question man alone has the dignity to ask \u2014 Am I a creature or an accident? \u2014 is being answered by taking screenshots of our oppositions\u2019 Facebook statuses, rebutting them in Impact font, and posting them in a forum appropriated for the caress of our preconceived notions and the heavy petting of our unexamined faith. In this climate of awful, between the \u201cGod Hates Gays\u201d meme and the \u201cAtheism Causes War\u201d rebuttal, I sympathize with the man who dismisses current atheistic\/theistic dialogue as a joke.<\/p>\n

But the problem with all this is that it\u2019s\u00a0not<\/em>\u00a0a joke. If there were jokes, there would be understanding, and an untwisting of sneers besides. The power of humor is not that it makes the serious frivolous, but that it unites opposites, and binds contraries in communion. By opening the lungs to laugh, humor opens the heart to hear, rendering a man absurdly vulnerable to anything his opposition wishes to say.<\/p>\n

Take, for instance, the fact that it is acceptable to insult a man\u2019s mother to his face if \u2014 and only if \u2014 you can make him laugh while doing it. \u2018Yo Momma\u2019 jokes bear testimony to this bizarre truth, that there a moments when we will enjoy precisely that which has been deemed utterly distasteful. In fact, it is entirely acceptable to call a man\u00a0any<\/em>\u00a0manner of names, to insult his upbringing, his occupation, the faithfulness of his wife, his education, his love life \u2014 if and only if he laughs. Laughter negates insult.<\/p>\n

By what witchcraft? I\u2019m not sure. But its seems that all jokes are inside jokes in that they bring two men into the same sphere to dwell in communion with each other. It\u2019s impossible not to like the man who makes you laugh, for in that moment of laughter you share with him the joke. You are his brother.<\/p>\n

Now if a joke allows a man to bear an insult to his person, and bear it willingly, then surely a joke would allow a man to bear an insult to his worldview and his philosophy, and bear it willingly? Debate is, when all is said and done, the constructive insult of another man\u2019s philosophy. This does not necessitate that it be bitter, in fact, it demands that it be good-natured. It demands that the insulting, divisive nature of debate be elevated by the\u00a0communicative, brotherly\u00a0nature of humor, if one desires to convince his opponent.<\/p>\n

I look to the debates of G.K. Chesterton and Bernard Shaw as my example, the former a Catholic and a distributist, the latter an\"\"<\/a> atheist and a socialist. Their ability to joke \u2014 and to stay friends \u2014 in the midst of such heated debate is no accident. It is precisely because they could joke that the debates were so heated \u2014 there was a real danger of some one being converted. Shaw, in defending his desire to abolish private property, said:<\/p>\n

If I own a large part of Scotland I can turn the people off the land practically into the sea, or across the sea. I can take women in child-bearing and throw them into the snow and leave them there. That has been done. I can do it for no better reason than I think it is better to shoot deer on the land than allow people to live on it. They might frighten the deer. <\/em><\/p>\n

But now compare that with the ownership of my umbrella. As a matter of fact the umbrella I have to-night belongs to my wife; but I think she will permit me to call it mine for the purpose of the debate. Now I have a very limited legal right to the use of that umbrella. I cannot do as I like with it. For instance, certain passages in Mr. Chesterton\u2019s speech tempted me to get up and smite him over the head with my umbrella. I may presently feel inclined to smite Mr. Belloc. But should I abuse my right to do what I like with my property\u2013with my umbrella\u2013in this way I should soon be made aware\u2013 possibly by Mr. Belloc\u2019s fist\u2013that I cannot treat my umbrella as my own property in the way in which a landlord can treat his land. I want to destroy ownership in order that possession and enjoyment may be raised to the highest point in every section of the community. That, I think, is perfectly simple\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

To which G.K. Chesterton responds:<\/p>\n

Among the bewildering welter of fallacies which Mr. Shaw has just given us, I prefer to deal first with the simplest. When Mr. Shaw refrains from hitting me over the head with his umbrella, the real reason\u2013apart from his real kindness of heart, which makes him tolerant of the humblest of the creatures of God\u2013is not because he does not own his umbrella, but because he does not own my head. As I am still in possession of that imperfect organ, I will proceed to use it to the confutation of some of his other fallacies\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

I fully agree with Mr. Shaw, and speak as strongly as he would speak, of the abomination and detestable foulness and sin of landlords who drove poor people from their land in Scotland and elsewhere. It is quite true that men in possession of land have committed these crimes; but I do not see why wicked officials under a socialistic state could not commit these crimes. But that has nothing to do with the principle of ownership in land. In fact these very Highland crofters, these very people thus abominably outraged and oppressed, if you asked them what they want would probably say, \u201cI want to own my own croft; I want to own my own land.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Perhaps I\u2019m the only one who enjoyed all that umbrella talk, but I hope I am not the only who recognizes that the exchange of these two men is miles beyond \u2014 in quality, clarity, and convictions \u2014 the right\/left, atheist\/theist debates we witness today.<\/p>\n

The current God Debate does not seek to make its opponent laugh, but to make an already sympathizing audience sneer. One wonders whether debates aim to convince at all \u2014 an object which demands the respect and love of the other \u2014 or whether they exist entirely to\u00a0publicly\u00a0dismiss others, a thrill unique to those \u2014 myself included \u2014 who forsake the pursuit of truth for that of popularity. Sarcasm, wit and humor \u2014 which all have their place \u2014 are wasted. Humor is one of the most powerful weapons human communication can wield, for it makes a friend out of an enemy, but we are too intent using it for the sake of our already-nodding audience to bother using it for the sake of conveying the truth.<\/p>\n

Chesterton said\u00a0\u201cIt is the test of a good religion whether you can\u00a0joke\u00a0about it\u201d, and this seems to me true, for to joke about your philosophy is to invite others into it \u2014 everyone<\/em> can laugh at a joke. Let us not be so smug as to disdain joining in.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Internet hath done wondrous deeds, but raising the intellectual bar cannot counted among them. This became clear when I realized the question man alone has the dignity to ask \u2014 Am I a creature or an accident? \u2014 is being answered by taking screenshots of our oppositions\u2019 Facebook statuses, rebutting them in Impact font, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-love-one-another"],"yoast_head":"\nChesterton, Shaw, and the Effect of Laughter on Insult<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Internet hath done wondrous deeds, but raising the intellectual bar cannot counted among them. 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