The modern world seems to be a big machine that runs on irony and hypocrisy, and being built by Americans, was not designed for fuel efficiency. One might claim that comedy isn't a major component to this system, but I would contend that it is very much the engine that takes us rip roaring through history lately. Let's take the example of the modern uprisings in South West Asia and Northern Africa as a case in point:
Europe takes these territories over in the late 19th and early 20th Century. They create colonies, administer them through violence and intimidation, all for no better reason than they thought they needed ruling. Then when they decide to leave they sat down like kids with crayons and drew some lines on a piece of paper and then informed the people in the region what countries they now resided in. Naturally these boarders weren't really good so the different 'countries' fought over them, which made it possible for Europe, the USSR and the USA to come in and arm the various governments so they could squabble more seriously over the lines in the sand.
For a variety of reasons it was realized that Dictatorships were the most efficient way to make allies in this volatile region and so that's how that worked out, autocracy for everyone! Now this was fine when it was NATO Vs. International Communism, but once that farce was played out it pretty much became NATO playing chess by itself, which isn't a game for anyone sane. Iran and Saudi Arabia like to think they can play, but they end up just being pieces on the board. Then one day as Neoliberalism was disemboweling the area, as it has done everywhere else in this brave new market world, some Arabs got really pissed off about the shit show that was their fate. And so it was that they started hitting the streets to partake in the time honored tradition of gambling their lives in the hope their governments would fold. Sadly even if they do fold one hand, the powerful still hold all the cards and so the game goes on unchanged.
In another vein of the same joke, Sarkozy and Cameron, current leaders of the Imperial instigators France and Britain, told their people that multiculturalism has failed and that they are going to revert to old cultural values. This is funny for a lot of reasons. The funniest of them is that they robbed the world to create wealthy societies at which point people from their 'former' colonies arrived to work and live so as not to be totally buggered for all of history. At this point they tell these same people that they are polluting their culture by their presence. When considering how the West operated and operates in these peoples place of origin it is a joke in very bad taste.
But wait, the US is never to be outdone in this department. In conjunction with a mindboggling foreign policy in the Arab world (crazed solo chess with made up countries for pieces) they are also the harbinger of neoliberalism, which the US has exported to every corner of the earth. This is an impressive feat considering their was originally no demand for it. Ergo it is a powerful joke when a country like Egypt rises up against both Dictatorship and Neoliberalism only to hear the US support the Egyptian people in their desire for freedom and democracy. The joke goes even further when the same people are accused of supporting religious extremism for the very same action... Sadly I think the humor is lost on most people, but since it is one of those really long complicated jokes without a discernible punchline and lots of people suffer/die/cry in it, I understand why many fail to grasp the humor. For me however the union of comedy and tragedy is the only way to live in this world without falling for the falsehoods of idealism or nihilism. My advice is to take it for what it is folks, and try to laugh at the jokes.
Some quotes on our subject:
"Forgive, oh Lord, my little jokes on Thee, and I'll forgive Thy great big joke on me." -Robert Frost
"Not living in fear is a great gift, because certainly these days we do it so much. And do you know what I like about comedy? You can’t laugh and be afraid at the same time—of anything. If you’re laughing, I defy you to be afraid." -Stephen Colbert
"Well, the telling of jokes is an art of its own, and it always rises from some emotional threat. The best jokes are dangerous, and dangerous because they are in some way truthful." -Kurt Vonnegut
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