War, Prisons, Rape, Torture and Other Fun Cheap Thrills
Visual Purple
Quote: "Please feel free to join in here. It really is fun, if you
don't take yourself too seriously."
The statement was topped off by a cutesy wink.
Those who come to message boards for cheap thrills can be trusted to
slip up and betray her real intentions, though they protest deep
conviction and concern about pressing issues. That facade they put
becomes too, too heavy a mantle to bear at some point. They fumble and
drop it. The veneer then breaks and we get a glimpse into the mind and
emotions of the morally squalid and emotionally truncated.
I am not singling out the person who wrote the above for being raked
over the coals. Au contraire. My purpose here is to bring the reader's
attention to a phenomenon.
It has been said to me a number of times by "contributors" to CE and
political issues boards that I "take myself too seriously". I fluffed
the accusation off, knowing that I laugh quite heartily at myself. I
took it as a ploy to get me to laugh at myself thinking they were
laughing with me, when in fact they would be laughing at me. So, I
ignored their "friendly" suggestion.
But then the above quote was written and I realized that the case is
that they come to CE and political issues boards only for "fun" and
"laughs".
It is the issues that they take lightheartedly and light-headedly, not
themselves. Not one of them ever laughs at himself or herself. No, only
others are fair game and the butt of jokes to them.
People with a genuinely good and mature sense of humor laugh first and
foremost at themselves; they never do
I realized in a flash that these are the very same people who are those
who take a position in favor of Arab terrorism. I always knew that they
were assuming an obnoxious position in order to get people who are
genuinely concerned and passionate about matters that concern all Human
beings incensed so that they could have a good laugh at someone who
lost their temper. But now I realize that the only people who can take
the positions that they take are people who are among those to whom
Jimi Hendrix was referring when he sang: "there are many here among us
who think that life is but a joke".
The matters discussed on CE and political issues boards are not jokes.
They are matters of life and death and Human welfare. Anyone who comes
to such boards for fun is perverted.
Certainly, we may enjoy the mental and emotional stimulation of sharing
opinions, having our opinions challenged and amending them. But this is
not "fun". It's not a cheap thrill.
Certainly, there is no reason for brooding solemnity all the time on a
CE board or political forum. There is most definitely room, even a
need, for tasteful humor that lightens the atmosphere and helps us to
cope with the very difficult. But a general atmosphere of respectful
decorum is in order - both for the contributors and for the issues
being dealt with.
It took me a long time to realize that so many who people CE boards and
political issues fora are there for nothing other than kicks (I mean
this in every sense of the word). It is so far from my mind to conceive
of things that way that I could simply not understand for the longest
time.
But there you have it, in so many words. While a war is raging that
could engulf other nations, the contributor who wrote the quote above
is having fun and not taking it seriously and that person is hardly
alone. Of course, s/he can't say that. So, s/he says that s/he is not
taking herself seriously. Oh, no? When did s/he ever have a
good-natured belly laugh at his/her own expense or allow anyone else
to?
No, it is life itself that is a joke to those who take the side of
terrorists. To them it is only a fun "bang bang shoot 'em up" show.
I am indebted to the person who wrote the quote above. I needed to have
it presented to me in very blunt terms. I would not have understood it
for myself had it not been pushed so indecorously in my face- thank
God.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat (Safed), Israel
Doree...@gmail.com