The history of court jesters and fools reveals lessons about the nature of modern power, from narcissistic hubris to cults of personality—and the necessity of being told when you're wrong.
Brian, I like your punchline…but how does one deliver honest criticism good naturedly?? I guess I have been around too many malignant narcissists in positions of power to even have that opportunity.
But there is a broader point to humor…it is a way of delivering truth and honesty about a variety of things we observe in life all the time. It is not just those in leadership positions, but societal groups writ large who need to stop taking themselves too seriously (a collective narcissism) also need that kind of feedback.
What would make your point even more compelling is to examine leaders who can take a joke, and/or have changed their path based on honest, constructive feedback. I fear in this day and age, they are few and far between as our individual and collective narcissism is growing and amplified in the world of social media that allows one to live in an echo chamber free of examination and criticism. Such that the role of humor and the jester is one of delivering to the message not to the leader, but to society at large to show the folly and insanity of it all. That is what made the Daily Show and Colbert so successful! Will it reach everybody? No. But others are increasingly using this tactic (political cartoonists are but one example).
Nice one, sir! We need the reminders and the analyses leavened with anecdote to reset after a week of diabolical and misleading nonsense - it saves us abandoning hope in these interesting times.
Brian, I like your punchline…but how does one deliver honest criticism good naturedly?? I guess I have been around too many malignant narcissists in positions of power to even have that opportunity.
But there is a broader point to humor…it is a way of delivering truth and honesty about a variety of things we observe in life all the time. It is not just those in leadership positions, but societal groups writ large who need to stop taking themselves too seriously (a collective narcissism) also need that kind of feedback.
What would make your point even more compelling is to examine leaders who can take a joke, and/or have changed their path based on honest, constructive feedback. I fear in this day and age, they are few and far between as our individual and collective narcissism is growing and amplified in the world of social media that allows one to live in an echo chamber free of examination and criticism. Such that the role of humor and the jester is one of delivering to the message not to the leader, but to society at large to show the folly and insanity of it all. That is what made the Daily Show and Colbert so successful! Will it reach everybody? No. But others are increasingly using this tactic (political cartoonists are but one example).
Nice one, sir! We need the reminders and the analyses leavened with anecdote to reset after a week of diabolical and misleading nonsense - it saves us abandoning hope in these interesting times.
This was fun — and from a person who studied French History. Thanks!
However ...
I kept waiting for you to point out that today our country has too many jesters — although not thought of or named as same by everyone.
Heh. The 5th Circuit could really use a "court jester."