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Liberating Provocations: use of negative and paradoxical strategies (Part #11)
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Perhaps the most interesting way in which perverse strategies are implemented is through humour. Some family therapy strategies notably stress humour. Political humour and satire have notably been used to attempt to change society and its institutions [more]. Commenting on the humourless British elections of 2005, Ukrainian novelist Andrey Kurkov (Is it time for a British revolution? Guardian, 26 April 2005) argues:
The Germans never laughed at Hitler and neither did the Soviet people laugh at Stalin... More recently all Ukraine laughed at outgoing president Leonid Kuchma. It was precisely humour that won the day in the Ukrainian presidential elections last year. Political satire, hard-hitting, witty leaflets and computer animations which parodied Ukrainian political life played a role in the eventual outcome that has yet to be properly evaluated.
Is it possible that the regime change for the most disliked regimes could simply be achieved by such laughter -- "laughter revolutions"?
A former Deputy Director-General of UNESCO co-founded the Association for the Promotion of Humour in International Affairs (APHIA), which has presented an annual "Noble Prize". The Aachen's Carnival Celebration Club has awarded, since 1950, a Medal for Combating Deadly Seriousness (Orden wider den tierischen Ernst) officially designated as 'humour in office'. In practice this means the relaxed, jovial absence of ponderous gravity, a quality that is capable of even bringing out the human traits in the most inveterate bureaucrat. Most of the more than 40 award bearers are politicians, diplomats and lawyers.
A variety of provocative prizes and awards are given to challenge complacency. There are many "wooden spoon" awards for failure in competitions -- a "booby prize" dating back to failure in mathematics examinations [more], adapted by six national rugby unions into a Wooden Spoon Society to provide charitable support to children and young people who are physically, mentally or socially disadvantaged [more]. The annual Ig Nobel Prize is for scientific research "achievements that cannot or should not be reproduced". The Stella Award, named after a woman who received $2.9 million in damages for burning herself with a cup of McDonald's coffee, acknowledges any wild, outrageous, or ridiculous lawsuits. "Brickbat Awards" are conferred by various industries for incompetence -- for example, by the Committee for the Prevention of Sequential Mediocrity in comic design. The Prix Déméritas is awarded for sexist journalism. The Darwin Awards salute the improvement of the human genome by honouring those who accidentally kill themselves in really stupid ways -- of necessity, this honour is generally bestowed posthumously. Various other awards for stupidity have been proposed, including a Stupidity Nobel Prize to honour stupid politicians. The Kevorkian Prize for Racial Suicide is awarded to those working against the interests of ethnic and racial identity. The NoBul Prize has been proposed for exceptional contributions to truth in the deadly non-stop guerilla "War of Resistance" against lies and ignorance. On the occasion of the World Economic Forum in Davos, a Public Eye on Davos Award is now conferred annually by a group of NGOs on companies who have excelled in socially and environmentally irresponsible behaviour [more]. In the USA, the Family Research Council awarded annually from 1997 a range of "Court Jester" awards for various forms of questionable judging in courts of justice [more].
A form of perverse humour may also be the basis of religious teaching stories -- as with the tragi-comic Sufi tales of the Mullah Nasruddin. Paradox may be used in other spiritual teaching devices such as the Zen koan. This is a puzzling, often paradoxical statement or contrarian story, used in Zen Buddhism as an aid to meditation and a means of gaining spiritual awakening. The vama-marga ('left-path') tantric practice of overcoming conditioning by satiating the subject with the practice of what conditions him/her. "Crazy wisdom" and "spiritual foolishness" are promoted by Taoists as paradoxical "ways of knowing". There have been many times in the history of divine and human affairs when folly has been the cause of deliverance and salvation. A sudden paradoxical turn is frequently the Holy Spirit’s preferred way of liberating God’s people from spiritual and political impasses alike [more].
Humour may also be built into a form of "perverse advertising" as in the classic bush tourism advertisement in Australia: "We take you to such isolated places that if you break a leg we have to shoot you. Then we cover you with rocks and turn you into a sacred site."! The UK movie Babe (1995), starring a sympathetic piglet, was followed by a billboard from the meat industry: "You have seen the movie, now eat the star". Much better known -- and criticised -- are the startling, sometimes funny, advertising campaigns for clothes used internationally by Benetton for 17 years, focusing controversially on war, racism, AIDs and child labour [more | more]. The question is whether such techniques could in any way be used globally for social rather than commercial purposes? For example, to raise money for leukemia research, the middle-aged women of the Rylstone Women's Institute (UK) posed naked for an alternative calendar in 1999 which sold worldwide beyond all expectations -- a movie (Calendar Girls, 2003) was subsequently made of their initiative. Imitations have followed.
| The EU as Entropa David Černý, the Czech artist was commissioned to produce an eight-tonne sculptural installation, representative of the EU, and showpiece of the Czech presidency, finally unveiled in the atrium of the European Council in Brussels in January 2009. |
Marina Hyde. Thus spoke Entropa: the EU defined in an Airfix model. The Guardian, 17 January 2009
Sarah Lyall. Art Hoax Unites Europe in Displeasure. The New York Times, 14 January 2009 Czech Presidency of the Council of the EU. Entropa: Stereotypes are Barriers to be Demolished. Press Release, 12 January 2009 |
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