Let me start by saying (or in American terms “right off the bat”) that I absolutely love satire and particularly Jon Stewart and John Oliver. I’ve been following both for ages and I will continue to do so unless there is a drastic switch in values or on a major issue which so far never happened. But I am slowly beginning to question the role of satire in making fun of serious/consequential issues. It is NOT that “jokes” ain’t funny but they kinda diminish the serious nature of these matters and provide a disingenuous context/platform for discussing them. At the end they’re reflected as part of the big joke of life which they most certainly are not. One example is the fun they constantly make of Trump whether pre or post election time. Yes they were funny but at the end of the day they had no actual effect on results cause even trump supporters would presumably only watch the programs for laughs (if at all) and for non supporters its a way of letting off steam so that they can go on with their happy-go-lucky lifestyle rather than using the steam more cleverly/efficiently to help achieve change. What is needed, in my opinion when discussing serious issues are programs that discuss such issues from a different prism/angle; one that is completely colour blind in terms of ideology and focused squarely on critical/unbiased thinking (NOT reactionary impulses promoted by the political elite-national or foreign). This should be the goto approach that needs to carved into our psyche as the only approach that will help us advance – within the context of our democratic governance model – as one of the many protections / reforms needed to drive us towards a more sustainable future at every level. So in a nutshell where serious consequential issues are involved we need to – for the most part – be critical thinkers NOT jokers and there’s already plenty on our over flowing river before we’re all flooded/disoriented which comes with its own set of additional challenges.
Just a thought…
Democracy’s Major Upgrade – Moving to Democracy 2.0 To Eliminate Political Hijacking