Supressing the tragedy and enjoying the comedy, seems a profitable course. Remember that reality – the plot – is the same for both. Taking the tragic road to the light on the other side is the same as taking the comic road. The roads are the same.
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Comedy is of the mind – we do need the mind – we need a quick wit and quick responses. Releasing too much of the heart to public gaze aggrandises us as heroes of noble tragedy – and apart. Comedy makes us ridiculous, but included. Truly, whole societies – indeed the species herself are ridiculous. Laughter brings us together.
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Tragedy can bring us together in laughter. As we leave the oil machinery behind – evacuate the enclosures and settle the common – we must first pass through tragedies, which we ourselves have made – well, through tragi-comedy. Let’s be jongleurs de joy; lords (and subjects) of misrule; Don Quixote as Everyman (sexless). If laughter defeats the tears, we’ll have a glimmer of a chance.
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Those seriously engaged in maintaining suicidal ways of life – that is, nearly everybody – will label us comic. Keep the label and keep throwing it back. Might we not eventually fall in a common heap of helpless laughter?
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Never forget that seriousness is a biological catalyst – an enzyme, which extinguishes thought. It is the puffing up of authority in the face of danger – the posturing of rival animals. Many species use it to extinguish sensuality and fear. Those serious peer-reviewed articles, or newspaper editorials use posture (seriousness) as a replacement for thought – just as rival silver-backs swell with stupidity to achieve their status.
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Seriousness proposes “realistic” responses to the ecological, economic and climatic cliff edge – that is, it shuts off the problem and swells with stupidity. It cannot not listen to truly reasonable voices, because it has blocked its ears.
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Perhaps it is true that we have but three ways of seeing – the tragic, the comic and the serious.
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We can escape neither the first, nor the second, but the third – seriously?
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