ESSAY
TO LAUGH AT OURSELVES, TO LAUGH
AT OTHERS
«In the end,
everything is a gag»
Attributed to
Charles Chaplin
To
laugh at others, and at their mistakes and
contradictions can be a bad sign – a sign of
insensibility and roughness. But to laugh at ourselves
and at the contradictions inevitably present in our own
lives can be a sign of sensibility and openness.
Those
who are not able to laugh at themselves, those who are
not able to see a certain human comedy and how it
deserves to be laughed at loudly, are too wounded, or
too old, or can be rightly suspicious of having a
primary mind. As
Andre Comte-Sponville states, «whoever makes
of himself a statue – be it for the glory of man or the
sake of the law – cannot complain when he is suspected
of being hard-hearted or assuming a pose».
We
can’t laugh at everything or laugh permanently, because
life has a true hard and tragic element. And also
because convictions – in that they are authentic and
humble – deserve our respect, and the respect of others.
Our life is a gag in many moments, as
Charles Chaplin
stated. But not always...
We all
are fragile beings, subject to the whim of luck, to the
limitations of our brains, to fear and pain. All these
cause a certain human appetite for myths, sins,
illusions, chimerical behaviour, incoherence between
what is said and what is done. These features introduce
and feed contradiction into our lives. Even the most
coherent and lucid of us can’t help living the
contradiction. We all live. The difference is only a
matter of degree.
And
that’s why humour about our lives is so pertinent. To
face life seriously, to meditate over its meaning and
nature, is, ultimately, also to be able to laugh at it.
To laugh at life at the right moments can be a sign of
mental health… and a sign of wisdom.
Books, Films,
Cultural Stuff on
these issues? See
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See also:
Quotes and thoughts on our
funny life
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Ourselves, Understanding Human Behavior
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