Alex,
You are the member of an elite, son
So it is ridiculous to acknowledge the fact of superiority and inferiority within the universal mind? There is a hierarchy of intelligence in nature, but we generally resist judgment because no one likes to realize that there are beings of higher intelligence than them. And btw, I don’t believe that I’m the highest on the intelligence totem pole, but I have the experience to realize that I possess some degree of the enlightened experience, which I share with a some of the writers on this forum.
You must clearly see the complete absurdity and the utter humor in what the last few days have brought to our dear forum in terms of ridiculous displays! If the Jester can't make you aware of this, you know who comes next, right?
The ridiculous part of it all is how humor functions to protect the ego, and protect the herd group-think. Humor functions to dismiss behavior that disrupts the unity of the community. That is why herd-humor is ultimately unconscious behavior, and there have been quite a few of these types of emotional reactions on GF, especially when I judged who I thought are the highest quality writers on GF as far as the values of enlightenment are concerned.
And the enlightened values simply reflect a similar subjective experience. As I said, I suspect that writers such as David, Kevin, Diebert, Cory, Dan, Nick, myself and a few others share some degree of the enlightened experience. We share some degree of the common ground. If I had to use a metaphor: If we were trees, there would be slight differences in the foliage on the branches, but the roots would be anchored deeply to the same ground in various degrees.
Whereas many of the other trees on GF still need to grow, still need to mature, still need to intake the right nutrients, while ignoring others. In essence, many other writers on GF are not yet full grown as far as the enlightened experience is concerned. And unfortunately, some trees don't have the right genetic seed to fully mature to trees, as their growth is stunted, and they remain at a dwarf like level.
Humor is therefor a kind of weapon, a wedge, a lever. Rochefoucauld in his aphorisms, if I remember, pointed out that life itself, in the form of old age, reduces us to the ridiculous! Ridicule stands as the inevitable back-drop to existence therefor. Also, laughter and the pointing at what is funny ('to see the funny side of life') is a survival tool.
But I see constant comedy as a sort of imbalance. It is born of an insatiable mind that wants more and more pleasure, more and more excitement, at the expense of others. Infrequent comedy is different, and happens spontaneously when one is shocked or overwhelmed by something that is incredibly absurd. But one shouldn’t see the entire world through the lens of the absurd, such an outlook is imbalanced.
The comedian is a sort of theft actually, he pokes others to reward himself, he is like the vampire persona in ancient lore - constantly lusting for more pleasure by invoking an involuntary response in others. The documentary Comedian illustrated this perfectly. It shows the bizarre nature of the comedian’s life - Jerry Seinfeld is sort of a tragic figure, an addict of his own making, roaming the world, perfecting his gig to score that best response by the audience - but he is never quite satisfied with the results.
