In this issue:The Emperor's New Clothes: A Tale for Our Politically Correct TimesBorat and the Golden Rule |
Dear Reader:
Whether you celebrate Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanzaa, or your holiday of choice, I hope your preparations are going smoothly and that you have enough money to cover your expenses.
This month's newsletter focuses on humor, something we all love but understand so poorly. First, I will write about the Hans Christian Andersen take, The Emperor's New Clothes, an amazingly profound story. Then a bit about the controversial movie, Borat, for it does have something to do with the Emperor story.
I conclude with a movie recommendation for Akeelah and the Bee. It's not a comedy, though there are some funny scenes, but it sure is worth seeing and showing to our kids.
You are welcome to read previous newsletters and to use any articles you like in your own publication, as long as you cite the author and source.
Now, for the main article.
The Emperor's New Clothes: A Tale for Our Times
Just about everyone in the western world is familiar with is the Hans Christian Andersen tale, “The Emperor’s New Clothes.” I had never given the story much thought, but I recall learning that the message of the story was that a naïve, innocent child was willing to say what the adults did not have the guts to admit, that the emperor was naked. I just checked Wikipedia and it says that the lesson is “Just because everyone else believes something is true, doesn't mean it is.” However, I have had a nagging feeling that there is more to the story than these simple lessons, so I decided to give another look, and I believe my suspicions were confirmed. The story has something much more profound to teach us than "children are honest" or "the majority isn’t always right," and the story’s lesson is especially important for today’s society.
Have you noticed that this story is different from most fairy tales? Most are dramas, with the protagonists encountering serious danger. They may face poverty, death or loss of a prized marriage partner. The Emperor’s New Clothes, in contrast, is pure comedy. It makes a complete fool of the emperor who, because of his vanity, is paraded around naked -- about the most humiliating thing that can happen to an adult. It also makes a fool of the rest of adult society for going along with the self-deception.
The fear of nakedness is a common, archetypal fear that afflicts people living in civilization. One of my own recurring nightmares involves being caught naked in public, and I'm sure many of you have had such a dream, too. Nakedness comes natural to infants, animals, and humans living in nature. Nakedness becomes taboo only in civilization.
Why do we wear clothing? In addition to providing warmth and protection from the elements, clothing hides our imperfections and makes us look much better than we would look naked. We all like to look good, but the truth is that few of us look as good naked as do the models and celebrities that garnish our magazines. Even those beautiful people only look attractive in certain sexy poses or outfits. Almost every one of us looks better dressed than naked, and if you have ever visited a nudist colony or seen films of one, you would understand why the masses aren’t flocking to join.
What happens in The Emperor’s New Clothes? (Click here to read the full story of The Emperor’s New Clothes) In short, two swindlers come to a great city proclaiming they are weavers who could produce clothes of “the finest cloth that could be imagined,” material that is “not only exceptionally beautiful, but made of…material [possessing] the wonderful quality of being invisible to any man who [is] unfit for his office or unpardonably stupid.”
The narcissistic emperor is a fashion nut and just has to have a suit made of this beautiful cloth. Everyone makes believe they see the non-existent suit because they don’t want to acknowledge that they are unfit for their position or are unpardonably stupid. As a result, the emperor gets paraded around town stark naked. Finally an innocent child reveals the simple truth that the emperor is naked -- the ultimate humiliation for the person with ultimate power. Even when confronted with this truth, the Emperor continues his parade with his head high, not daring to show feelings of humiliation, and his servants go on with the charade as well.
Of course no society in history has been stupid enough to believe that a naked emperor was really wearing clothing. And a naked emperor would certainly not think he's wearing invisible clothing because he wouldn't feel any cloth. The story is clearly a social satire, one that I believe may be more relevant today than when it was written. And it is not only about foolish leaders; it is about the fool in all of us.
What is society doing today? As I often have said in my seminar, we are in the process of outlawing humor. We are passing anti-bully laws forbidding people from making fun of each other. The biggest crime today is to make jokes about people’s differences and imperfections. “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words kill!” is the new slogan. The government is guaranteeing us a life in which everyone makes believe we are perfect. If I am overweight, exceptionally tall, short, smart, stupid, handicapped, act like a fool, engage in atrocious behavior because I have victim-group status, everyone else is supposed to make believe they don’t notice these things. If you do notice them, it must be because you are morally defective, not fit for your status as an enlightened citizen of a modern society. And you had certainly better not say anything about my imperfections or you'll get punished.
Adults, of course, are less in need of such laws because by the time we grow up, most of us have learned the rules of polite society. We have learned to make believe everyone is perfect and to expect others to make believe we are perfect. That’s why the major target of our anti-bullying efforts are our children, who, like the boy in the story, haven’t yet learned to pretend they don’t see people’s differences and imperfections. We must celebrate diversity, but without humor. Be ecstatic that people are different, but don’t let on that you see there is anything wrong or funny about their differences, or you are an immoral bully and we will not tolerate you.
The efforts to make it a crime to say anything about people’s imperfections are, of course, done with good intentions, but the road to hell is paved with good intentions. We want to society to protect our children's feelings by forbidding anyone from making fun of them. Unwittingly, we are raising a generation of emotional marshmallows, kids who can’t handle jokes and criticism. We think we want kids to learn to be honest, but we really want them to be hypocrites, pretending they see only perfection in each other. In today’s society, the boy in the story would not be admired for his honesty; he would be severely punished!
Borat and the Golden Rule
How could I not write about the movie, "Borat"? Especially after I just wrote about society’s efforts to outlaw humor.
Borat : Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (2006; Directed by Larry Charles) is one of the funniest movies I have ever seen. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Borat, he is a fictional character created by Sacha Baron Cohen, star of the HBO show, “Da Ali G Show.” I fell in love with Da Ali G Show the moment I came across it while channel surfing in a hotel room, and I was sure I would love the movie, too. I wasn’t disappointed.
"Borat" also happens to be one of the most controversial movies since The Passion of the Christ and Brokeback Mountain. And why is it controversial? Because it is so funny. All comedy has the potential of offending someone, and Borat can offend all of us. In fact, Sacha Baron Cohen is currently beng sued by two college students who revealed their politically incorrect attitude and by the town in Romania that was the fictional setting for Borat’s home town because he made them look like backwards, incestuous fools.
Most people who saw "Borat" loved it, but some people hate it and others who just don’t "get it" find it boring. The Borat character is supposedly a reporter from Kazakhstan who comes to the United States to produce a documentary on the culture of the United States, but the identity is simply a disguise that allows him to have fun with the people he interacts with. Many people who see the movie think that it is anti-Semitic, but Sacha Baron Cohen is a proud Jew who is actually making fun of anti-Semites. The government of Kazakhstan was in an uproar about the movie because he makes their people look like anti-Semitic boors, but anyone who understands the movie realizes that Cohen didn’t make the movie as an attack against that country; he simply wanted to create a credible-seeming Eastern European identity but that that few people are familiar with, so that it would be easy to get Americans to respond to him seriously.
Many people have raised the question of whether the movie is mean-spirited, but Cohen has no anger towards or desire to hurt his targets. He is simply doing what humor is supposed to do: to show humans with all their glorious imperfections. Because he uses real people and not just actors, there is a greater danger that he will get in trouble, but that's also what makes his movie funnier than those that only use actors.
I happened to see the movie, "Talladega Nights" (2006; Directed by Adam McKay), on an airplane a few days later. Foolishly, I succumbed to watching a free movie on the plane instead of getting some work done. I honestly did not laugh once. I mention this to make a contrast between good comedy and lousy comedy. And I haven’t heard of anyone suing the creators of "Talladega Nights." Why? is it because it can’t offend anyone? No. It has the potential of offending all Nascar fans and drivers because the movie portrays them all as stupid, dysfunctional white trash. Why aren’t they suing? Maybe it’s because Nascar fans aren’t smart enough to sue! (That’s meant as a joke, so don’t sue me.) Or maybe it is not funny enough to have made anyone feel offended.
Most people don’t realize that humor is, by nature, negative and offensive; our conscience doesn't want us to be aware that we enjoy people looking bad. Since we learn nothing about humor in our academic psychology studies, I would like to refer you to a Newsweek story on "Borat." It is about the best treatise on humor I have ever seen and should be read by everyone in the social sciences: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15560971/site/newsweek/
By the way, not everyone in Kazahkhstan is mad about "Borat." A leading Kazakhi author has nominated Sacha Baron Cohen for an award of honor for raising the world’s interest in Kazakhstan and helping its economy! http://thetrack.bostonherald.com/moreTrack/view.bg?articleid=168969
Getting back to the question of whether "Borat" is mean-spirited. To answer that, we might wonder if Sacha Baron Cohen’s behavior would comply with the Golden Rule, i.e., would he want to be treated the way he is treating others? My answer would have to be a resounding “Yes.” First of all, he does makes a complete fool of himself in the film, and humiliates himself worse than he does anyone else in the movie (his naked wresting scene is not done with a body double, and I bet that you wouldn't dare being seen in a bathing suit like the one he wears when he goes sunbathing!).
It is assumed that the Golden Rule would make it wrong for anyone to say something that could offend anyone else. If so, we would have to outlaw humor because humor, by its nature, is offensive. But is humor really contrary to the Golden Rule? To correctly answer this, we would have to ask ourselves the broader question, “Would I like to live in a society in which no one makes fun of me, and I don’t make fun of anyone else?” Or, stated in another way, “Would I like to live in a society in which everyone has to make believe I am perfect and I have to make believe they are perfect?”
My personal answer is “No,” and I am sure Cohen would answer the same. It would not even be healthy for society. If we were all to make believe we’re perfect, we wouldn’t be able to correct our faults. We would all be like the Emperor in "The Emperor’s New Clothes." We'd all be going around doing things that are stupid and even harmful, and no one would be allowed to say anything about it for fear of hurting people's feelings. Both ourselves and society would be in danger. The truth is that no one is perfect, and we see each other’s faults better than we see our own. "Borat" did not turn us into fools or bigots; like the boy in The Emperor's New Clothes, he just exposes us for the fools and bigots we really are.
An emotionally healthy person knows he's not perfect, can take a joke about him/herself and make a joke about him/herself. That's why Reader's Digest has taught us that "Laughter is the best medicine." "Borat" comes not to hurt us but to heal us.
Movie Recommendation: Akeelah and the Bee
One of my mailing list members has been begging me to see "Akeelah and the Bee" (2006; Directed by Doug Atchison) and I finally got around to seeing it. And I am grateful. It is a wonderful, inspiring movie and I wholeheartedly recommend it to everyone.
Akeelah, played marvelously by Keke Palmer, is a precocious 11 year old Black girl from South Los Angeles who decides to take part in the school’s spelling bee and goes on to compete in the national competitions. The exciting story will hold your attention from beginning to end and bring tears to your eyes.
What makes this different from most movies about underdogs who go on to win competitions is that most films of that genre are about physical activities, such as sports or dancing. This one is about an intellectual pursuit, and it makes it cool to be smart. I believe it is especially valuable for kids in the inner cities, because their culture has made it uncool to be good in school, and this movie has the potential to motivate kids to use their brains and not just their brawns. I especially liked the birthday party scene. You have never seen a party quite like this!
So watch this movie with your kids, and show it in school. No one will be disappointed. And I am certain that some kids who see it will become motivated to do better in school and intellectual activities.
Best Wishes,
Izzy Kalman
email: izzy@bullies2buddies.com
voice: (718) 983-1333
web: http://www.bullies2buddies.com
