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The Morality of Laughter

F.H. Buckley

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Description:In life's lesser conflicts, as in war, one of our most valuable weapons is humor. In his lively & provocative philosophical study, The Morality of Laughter, Francis H. Buckley makes the case that laughter can also be a moral tool. Laughter, he maintains, is judgmental: It "announces & enforces a code of behavior thru the jester's signal of superiority over a butt. There is no laughter without a butt, & no butt without a message about a risible inferiority." Thus, when we laugh at the French, we recognize not merely their moral cowardice, but our own moral courage; we see our virtue a little more clearly, a feeling that is unifying & mutually reinforcing. ("Going to war without France is like going deer hunting without your accordion."—Norman Schwartzkopf) According to Buckley, there are two main theories for why we laugh: the Positive Thesis & the Normative Thesis. The Positive Thesis asserts that we laugh because we feel superior to the butt of the joke, tho we may or may not actually be so. The Normative Thesis maintains that those who laugh actually are superior to the person being laughed at. Humor enables people to see a fault & avoid it, or to note virtue & reinforce it. Laughter contains lessons for avoiding bad behavior. "The morality of laughter," argues Buckley, "provides an answer to one of the oldest questions in philosophy: How ought I to live?" This is also the question the terrorists have compelled us to pose. Should we regard America as a racist, sexist, homophobic nation getting its deserved comeuppance—as the antiwar protestors, the politically-correct champions of moral relativity, would have it—or should we recognize our superiority to freedom-hating radicals, & vanquish them, before they take our lives & liberty away? As Buckley observes, since the rise of political correctness in the '70s, our culture has increasingly been dominated by moral relativists. Moral relativists cannot laugh at anyone's foolishness or evil, for laughter is necessarily judgmental— hence the ubiquity of humor in the military, that most comfortingly judgmental of professions, & its near-absence on university faculties. Buckley, who directs the Economics & Law Center at the George Mason School of Law, knows 1st-hand the humorlessness of academe & its consequences: "The loss of a sense of humor has impoverished academic discourse, where nonsensical theories that could not survive the test of ridicule are now taken seriously." Other than on elite college campuses, America's celebration of moral relativism appears to be coming to an end. One of the unintended consequences of 9/11 has been a renewal of American self-confidence, of our recognition of our basic decency as a people. That self-confidence manifested itself through laughter. Not long after 9/11, page after page of anti-bin Laden humor popped up all over the Internet. Once the initial shock of those 1st dark days passed, Americans did what Americans have always done in time of war: While arming ourselves mightily, we prepared for battle mentally by laughing at those who would vanquish us. (What do you call 100,000 Frenchmen with their hands up? The French Army.) Buckley examines the origins of laughter in both incongruity & superiority, & argues that it always arises in a social context, involves surprise (whether the jokester be Jack Benny on the screen or Mark Steyn on the page), & requires a "playfulness of spirit." He supports Henri Bergson's vision of the comic butt as a "machine man" who functions mechanistically, lacking intellectual, emotional & spiritual suppleness. Such mechanistic functioning is typical of the formulaic response offered by the politically correct to complex problems. Political correctness eschews humor because humor stereotypes its objects. This call for sensitivity had some justification—ethnic jokes can be hurtful—but the politically correct extended this butt protection to more & more groups, only allowing it for those they consider evil. Unfortunately, the white, capitalist patriarchy isn't a very funny target. Does Buckley think it fair to condemn people, such as the politically correct, for being humorless—& hence for lacking the ability to correct their faults? Evincing no compunction about being judgmental, Buckley cheerily asserts that the lack of a sense of humor is, indeed, a genuine moral defect: "As Aristotle noted, being moral is not simply a matter of right action; it also involves having the right sentiments. We can & do blame those whose feelings are inadequate, who cannot feel friendship, love, patriotism, anger or joy when these are called for." (Why did the French plant trees on the Champs Elysées? So the Germans could march in the shade.) One of the most engaging aspects of this book is Buckley's revelation of humor in unexpected places. He argues, for example, that Edmund Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France can be considered a satire attacking the comic vice of hypocrisy ("th...We have made it easy for you to find a PDF Ebooks without any digging. And by having access to our ebooks online or by storing it on your computer, you have convenient answers with The Morality of Laughter. To get started finding The Morality of Laughter, you are right to find our website which has a comprehensive collection of manuals listed.
Our library is the biggest of these that have literally hundreds of thousands of different products represented.

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ISBN: 0472098187

Description: In life's lesser conflicts, as in war, one of our most valuable weapons is humor. In his lively & provocative philosophical study, The Morality of Laughter, Francis H. Buckley makes the case that laughter can also be a moral tool. Laughter, he maintains, is judgmental: It "announces & enforces a code of behavior thru the jester's signal of superiority over a butt. There is no laughter without a butt, & no butt without a message about a risible inferiority." Thus, when we laugh at the French, we recognize not merely their moral cowardice, but our own moral courage; we see our virtue a little more clearly, a feeling that is unifying & mutually reinforcing. ("Going to war without France is like going deer hunting without your accordion."—Norman Schwartzkopf) According to Buckley, there are two main theories for why we laugh: the Positive Thesis & the Normative Thesis. The Positive Thesis asserts that we laugh because we feel superior to the butt of the joke, tho we may or may not actually be so. The Normative Thesis maintains that those who laugh actually are superior to the person being laughed at. Humor enables people to see a fault & avoid it, or to note virtue & reinforce it. Laughter contains lessons for avoiding bad behavior. "The morality of laughter," argues Buckley, "provides an answer to one of the oldest questions in philosophy: How ought I to live?" This is also the question the terrorists have compelled us to pose. Should we regard America as a racist, sexist, homophobic nation getting its deserved comeuppance—as the antiwar protestors, the politically-correct champions of moral relativity, would have it—or should we recognize our superiority to freedom-hating radicals, & vanquish them, before they take our lives & liberty away? As Buckley observes, since the rise of political correctness in the '70s, our culture has increasingly been dominated by moral relativists. Moral relativists cannot laugh at anyone's foolishness or evil, for laughter is necessarily judgmental— hence the ubiquity of humor in the military, that most comfortingly judgmental of professions, & its near-absence on university faculties. Buckley, who directs the Economics & Law Center at the George Mason School of Law, knows 1st-hand the humorlessness of academe & its consequences: "The loss of a sense of humor has impoverished academic discourse, where nonsensical theories that could not survive the test of ridicule are now taken seriously." Other than on elite college campuses, America's celebration of moral relativism appears to be coming to an end. One of the unintended consequences of 9/11 has been a renewal of American self-confidence, of our recognition of our basic decency as a people. That self-confidence manifested itself through laughter. Not long after 9/11, page after page of anti-bin Laden humor popped up all over the Internet. Once the initial shock of those 1st dark days passed, Americans did what Americans have always done in time of war: While arming ourselves mightily, we prepared for battle mentally by laughing at those who would vanquish us. (What do you call 100,000 Frenchmen with their hands up? The French Army.) Buckley examines the origins of laughter in both incongruity & superiority, & argues that it always arises in a social context, involves surprise (whether the jokester be Jack Benny on the screen or Mark Steyn on the page), & requires a "playfulness of spirit." He supports Henri Bergson's vision of the comic butt as a "machine man" who functions mechanistically, lacking intellectual, emotional & spiritual suppleness. Such mechanistic functioning is typical of the formulaic response offered by the politically correct to complex problems. Political correctness eschews humor because humor stereotypes its objects. This call for sensitivity had some justification—ethnic jokes can be hurtful—but the politically correct extended this butt protection to more & more groups, only allowing it for those they consider evil. Unfortunately, the white, capitalist patriarchy isn't a very funny target. Does Buckley think it fair to condemn people, such as the politically correct, for being humorless—& hence for lacking the ability to correct their faults? Evincing no compunction about being judgmental, Buckley cheerily asserts that the lack of a sense of humor is, indeed, a genuine moral defect: "As Aristotle noted, being moral is not simply a matter of right action; it also involves having the right sentiments. We can & do blame those whose feelings are inadequate, who cannot feel friendship, love, patriotism, anger or joy when these are called for." (Why did the French plant trees on the Champs Elysées? So the Germans could march in the shade.) One of the most engaging aspects of this book is Buckley's revelation of humor in unexpected places. He argues, for example, that Edmund Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France can be considered a satire attacking the comic vice of hypocrisy ("th...We have made it easy for you to find a PDF Ebooks without any digging. And by having access to our ebooks online or by storing it on your computer, you have convenient answers with The Morality of Laughter. To get started finding The Morality of Laughter, you are right to find our website which has a comprehensive collection of manuals listed.
Our library is the biggest of these that have literally hundreds of thousands of different products represented.

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