# Humor and Human Progress By:: [[Brian Heath]] 2024-02-16 If one chooses to exist in metamodernism, one will undoubtedly need a sincerely ironic sense of humor and enduring charm to survive and make any impact. A sense of humor is required to maintain one's sanity and to lighten the mood of one's social situation. It also allows one to challenge the status quo openly and nonthreateningly. Most meaningful and funny jokes come from a place of sincerity and are an open challenge to the incoherent behavior and policies around norms and beliefs. Cleverly making fun of a policy is often the only way within organizations to subvert authoritarian and hierarchical power dynamics. For example, say one dislikes how an organization thinks about worker performance. During mandatory training, Human Resources may tell managers to position any negative comments to an employee between two positive comments. They may even go as far as to call this the Sandwich Method. A joke could be made that this sounds like a shit sandwich. Depending upon the delivery, many will chuckle. But this joke hits the heart of the issue and perhaps makes a few people think about whether the status quo is acceptable. People within the organization may wonder why we are attempting to sugarcoat bad news. Are we not adults who can be treated as adults? Why does the organization look for ways to manipulate our perception of the situation and actively advocate that we do it to our fellow humans as a matter of instructed policy? If one stated these things to the organization directly, one would encounter massive resistance and risk one's organizational well-being. Sincere humor is the secret weapon of those wishing to make a difference. The laughter indicates how true the statement is and opens up the possibility that others might start thinking differently. When groups make topics off-limits to joke about, they immediately identify the most significant weaknesses in their belief system. Instead of improving on these weak points, they forcibly ignore them as the way things are for the greater good. They tell us to ignore the man behind the curtain and have historically created laws forbidding making fun of beliefs or authority figures such as the King. We've moved mainly beyond making explicit laws. Still, societal rules threaten to outcast any individuals who make fun of the serious topics of the day pushed by modernists, postmodernists, conservatives, and progressives. Examples include diversity, poverty, gender/sexuality, culture, nonprofits, suicide, nationalistic pride, science, religion, and inclusion. These hot and sensitive topics are some of the most significant challenges of our time. If we cannot find humor to critique policies and behaviors related to them, we only limit the possibility of societal progress. Solidarity around these issues requires acknowledging the good and bad of all positions. Doing so with sincerely ironic humor and charm creates an opportunity to laugh together in agreement that things are not perfect and can certainly get better. After all, laughter might be one of the only things humans can positively agree upon as enjoyable and deeply human. #### Related Items [[Humor]] [[Society]] [[Post-modern]] [[Metamodernism]] [[Beliefs]] [[Policies]] [[Progress]] [[The Human Condition]]