Laugh riot
By Mustang Bobby
(Cross-posted at Bark Bark Woof Woof.)
I think that one of the reasons the Republicans and the Romney campaign got so upset
at Joe Biden's laughing and smiling during the debate last week wasn't that he was doing it in response to Paul Ryan's flights of fancy away
from the truth. They don't care about being called liars. What got under their skin was that he was mocking him and making fun of him.
If Mr. Biden had gotten angry and all indignant at Mr. Ryan's serial misstatements and exaggerations, they could have dealt with that. I'm sure they were all ready to punch back at the angry Joe Biden. But bullies and hucksters lose all their advantage when they are openly scorned. Fear and loathing they can deal with; they feed on that kind of reaction. But not being taken seriously completely discombobulates them. They respond by demanding to be taken seriously — "Stop laughing at me!" — and that just brings on more laughter. To quote Robin Williams in Dead Poets Society, "we're not laughing at you; we're laughing near you."
As Mark Twain, Mel Brooks, Groucho Marx, and George Carlin have taught us, laughter is the most corrosive agent there is against the forces of the pompous and the arrogant bullies. It destroys them not by force but by undermining the essence of their very existence: being taken seriously. It doesn't mean they're not still a threat, but when you can laugh at them and mock them, they lose a lot of their power. And they know it.
If Mr. Biden had gotten angry and all indignant at Mr. Ryan's serial misstatements and exaggerations, they could have dealt with that. I'm sure they were all ready to punch back at the angry Joe Biden. But bullies and hucksters lose all their advantage when they are openly scorned. Fear and loathing they can deal with; they feed on that kind of reaction. But not being taken seriously completely discombobulates them. They respond by demanding to be taken seriously — "Stop laughing at me!" — and that just brings on more laughter. To quote Robin Williams in Dead Poets Society, "we're not laughing at you; we're laughing near you."
As Mark Twain, Mel Brooks, Groucho Marx, and George Carlin have taught us, laughter is the most corrosive agent there is against the forces of the pompous and the arrogant bullies. It destroys them not by force but by undermining the essence of their very existence: being taken seriously. It doesn't mean they're not still a threat, but when you can laugh at them and mock them, they lose a lot of their power. And they know it.
(Cross-posted at Bark Bark Woof Woof.)
Labels: 2012 vice-presidential debate, Joe Biden, Paul Ryan, Republicans
posted by Michael J.W. Stickings at
11:30 PM
1 Comments:
This is an interesting take on Republican behavior. I counter that Republicans are always upset. And I doubt there is anything Biden could have done (or not done) that would not have elicited a similar response.
But I think you are right: we should definitely laugh at them. Actually, that is the only way I get through most days.
By
Frankly Curious, at 11:40 PM
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