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<blockquote data-quote="Grimhelm" data-source="post: 4503842" data-attributes="member: 37079">Having our beliefs mocked is very unsettling. The thing we must explore is why it is unsettling! What are we clinging to so vehemently?&nbsp;The nature of belief is, for all intents and purposes, delusion. The Universe is not concerned or affected by our beliefs, therefore, why should we be so attached to them? In essence a satirist does not make fun of beliefs. How could he, as he must then make fun of all beliefs, other's and his own. What satirists ultimately aim at is our attachment to beliefs, our pig-headed unwillingness to give them up in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary.&nbsp;APewty, your notion that satire is an attack is precisely because you are unwilling to let go of your own attachments. The more you cling to them, the more offended you will become. The person who understands that his belief in the Flying Spaghetti Monster is no more or less valid than someone else's belief in the Prancing Unicorn God is wise indeed and will no doubt be able to see satire less as an attack and more as &quot;ain't humanity a kick?&quot;&nbsp;Satirists make fun of humanity, of being human. They don't normally choose one group over another. We are all immensely funny really. It is no surprise to me that the wise man is also the fool in all of the great myths. Therefore being a satirist may take a sharp intelligence, but more importantly to be a satirist requires great wisdom.&nbsp;Take Sir Gawain, Yoda, the fool in King Lear, Stultitia of Erasmus's Moriae Encomium, and of course the greatest noble fool of all: Don Quixote. These men and women all saw deeply into life. They laughed at men and they cried because of men. Their laughter was never an attack. It was: Can't we all see that life is a joke? Can't we all see that to stop laughing is to cry until we perish?</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Grimhelm, post: 4503842, member: 37079"] Having our beliefs mocked is very unsettling. The thing we must explore is why it is unsettling! What are we clinging to so vehemently? The nature of belief is, for all intents and purposes, delusion. The Universe is not concerned or affected by our beliefs, therefore, why should we be so attached to them? In essence a satirist does not make fun of beliefs. How could he, as he must then make fun of all beliefs, other's and his own. What satirists ultimately aim at is our [I]attachment[/I] to beliefs, our pig-headed unwillingness to give them up in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary. APewty, your notion that satire is an attack is precisely because you are unwilling to let go of your own attachments. The more you cling to them, the more offended you will become. The person who understands that his belief in the Flying Spaghetti Monster is no more or less valid than someone else's belief in the Prancing Unicorn God is wise indeed and will no doubt be able to see satire less as an attack and more as "ain't humanity a kick?" Satirists make fun of humanity, of being human. They don't normally choose one group over another. We are all immensely funny really. It is no surprise to me that the wise man is also the fool in all of the great myths. Therefore being a satirist may take a sharp intelligence, but more importantly to be a satirist requires great wisdom. Take Sir Gawain, Yoda, the fool in King Lear, Stultitia of Erasmus's [I]Moriae Encomium[/I], and of course the greatest noble fool of all: Don Quixote. These men and women all saw deeply into life. They laughed at men and they cried because of men. Their laughter was never an attack. It was: Can't we all see that life is a joke? Can't we all see that to stop laughing is to cry until we perish? [/QUOTE]

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