Ridicule's Role in The World

In the essay Ridicule: An Instrument in the War on Terrorism Waller takes the stance for ridicule and its use to fight against enemies. He focuses on the fact that ridicule has been used several times throughout history as a way of fighting those who are oppressive or, like the Islamic poets, use it as an offensive weapon. The reason, Heller explains, that ridicule is such a useful weapon against enemies is because it can ruin the enemy’s pride, claim to justice, and image of invincibility which is “a fate worse than death”.

Ridicule is an incredible fighting weapon for the common man. It is unbreakable, and it helps to bolster confidence in those oppressed. It can be used defensively or offensively. Anybody can use it—even the common Americans who used the British’s Yankee Doodle song and made it their own in order to insult the British’s pride and to increase their own. When Muhammad became a prophet, he used ridicule consistently and aggressively against enemies, and the Islamic poets during that time wrote ridicule to psychologically attack the enemies. Heller interestingly states that an extreme and powerful leader is even more vulnerable to ridicule and the laughter it produces. Hitler, for example, was subject to ridicule all over the world: British and American boys sang anti-Hitler songs, the three stooges acted out parodies, Charlie Chaplin made the movie The Great Dictator, and even Donald Duck dreamed he was stuck in Nazi Germany.

It is truly amazing how effective of a weapon ridicule is when it makes people laugh. Ridicule is an intangible force that calms people’s fears, gives hope, and can speak the truth. Leaders who like to have absolute control over their people fear this ridicule and attempt to banish this energy that lives only within people. Fidel Castro banned counter-revolutionary jokes from all official buildings. Vladimir Putin made all mockery and insults against the president illegal, and those who broke this law were imprisoned. The Islamic Republic of Iran at one point even assassinated jokesters living out of the country. Despite these and other similar attempts to snuff out ridicule, people still wittingly mock many political issues all over the world.

The problem with this mockery is when it goes too far. It is understandable that the medicine to people’s fear, humorously exemplified in Russell Peters’s joke about terrorists (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vf-mBSE1lRs), is ridicule. Heller states “…United States is a status symbol among the world’s terrorists, dictators, and political extremists. By taking that enemy too seriously, by hyping it up as a threat, the United States is unintentionally credentializing a heretofore insignificant individual or group, and giving it the stature it needs to rise above its own society , establish itself, attract recruits, and gain influence.” Russell Peters’s joke clearly shows this fear that Americans have, a fear of something dangerous which can be generalized to other situations too. As important as this cure is to this kind of fear, without limitations, ridicule can breed contempt even after the threat is gone. After a fight, there is peace, and there is a fear that this ridicule will not allow that peace to follow thereafter the fight. Is it possible for people to let go of that ego and pride that ridicule feeds in order to help people to overcome oppressive times?