Maybe Those Were The Days

Imagine if Netflix or one of the other networks came out with two new comedies – one about a racist blue- collar worker and another one about an equally racist nouveau riche black businessman – both of whom were shown to be fools.  How loud would the howls of protest be? How long would it take for Sean Hannity to use the blue-collar show as just another example of woke hatred of the “deplorables”? And it would take even less time for AOC and her acolytes to decry the show about the black businessman as just another example of continuing white supremacist culture. 

As you may have guessed, the shows to which I refer are, of course, “All in the Family,” and “The Jeffersons.” In the 1970’s both of the shows were among the most popular on television. “The Jeffersons“ ran for years. “All in the Family” is considered one of the greatest shows ever produced.

Today, to the woke crowd, “All in the Family” would be thrilling. Archie, they would say, demonstrates how racism is borne out of obvious ignorance – the man can’t even do better than a job on a loading dock. But, to those still sucking on the Trump teat, that show would be offensive. They would applaud Archie as a hard-working guy who doesn’t want to be displaced by some affirmative action incompetent.

On the other hand, to the woke folks, “The Jeffersons,” would be an affront. They would claim that even a George Jefferson, a Black man who has lifted himself up from poverty still had to be portrayed as a buffoon! But the Trumpsters would love “The Jeffersons”. To them, it would show how even when Blacks succeed (by some socialist policy) they still remain clowns.

This is just another example of our accelerating divisiveness. Everything is political. Everything separates us.

In this case, the dichotomy between how these two shows would be received illustrates how that divisiveness has undermined our ability to laugh at ourselves. We have lost our deprecating sense of humor. We have corralled ourselves into rigidly different camps and then defined ourselves by which camp we are in. Anyone not in your group is the OTHER. 

Once your own identity depends on your association with a group, then any challenge to that group is a personal challenge. It becomes an attack on more than just the ideas you have. You don’t even have to believe in the ideas of your group. Any attack on the group becomes an attack on you. It’s not just that your ideas are wrong – YOU ARE. That kind of stuff is hard to laugh at.

I’m talking only about our deprecating sense of humor. Nothing has diminished our ability to laugh at the OTHER. In fact, this is one of the fundamental duties of each respective group. Nothing demeans an enemy more than turning them into a laughingstock. I try to do that sometimes in this blog.

Surely it is better to laugh at each other than to shoot at each other, despite how angry the laughing may make both sides. Screaming at Sean Hannity is a lot better than the Crusades. But it seldom ends with just the screaming. 

Until we can laugh not only at the OTHER, but also at ourselves, the chances of bridging the dangerous gaps between us will be the same as those of Ted Cruz winning the Nobel Peace Prize.  

(Whoops, there I go, laughing only at the OTHER.  Let me try that again)

Until we can laugh not only at the OTHER, but also at ourselves, the chances of bridging the dangerous gaps between us will be the same as those of Chuck Schumer being carved into Mt. Rushmore. 

OK?