Columnists – regardless of their political views, styles, linguistic capabilities or intellectual capacities -- are divided into two groups: those with a sense of humor and those with none.

Humor is an intrinsic human quality. It cannot be bought, memorized, taught or gained by force. To fascism humor is a black hole. Fascists possess no sense of humor at all. Humor is also a black hole to racism. Racists have no sense of humor, either. You can add to the list the dogmatists, who dare to lead others via the religion they are born in, as well as the stock-still laicists (secularists), who get goose bumps when they hear the word “faith.” The list can go on. When you come across a rigid-minded ideolog, with an aggressive style, who has adopted an opinion focused on absolutism; inflexible, unchanging, believing he has nothing to learn from others, despising everyone who does not echo his views, warning he has the final say and looking down on just about everyone. Such a person cannot cope with humor. Fascism does not enjoy a laugh or make others laugh.

Since Rabelais’ era, “laughing at the state of the world by depicting the world order,” has become an creative source of questioning the dicta man has imposed on themselves. The clown, who standing beside the powerful could make fun of even the elite and the authority and could hold a mirror to the ugly faces of rigid aristocrats--so they could see themselves for what hey are-- has been replaced by modern-day humorists.

A humorist is one always with the child in him. He like the child who repeatedly asks “why,” day and night, without any fear or concern. People stop asking “why” when they grow older. They lose the child’s curiosity once they enjoyed. Their ability to question diminish, for curiosity is also gone. Thus, hey are no longer interested in details and nuances. An adult is completely indifferent to commoners, ordinary folks and those considered “normal. ” (Wo)men humorists just can’t stop asking “why.” They turn upside down even the most routine. Humor is a cocktail punch with everything in it. It becomes gallows humor when it mingles with politics, satire, the abstract, irony and cynicism, comedy, and popular culture.

Meanwhile, writers with a sense of humor fall into three categories: The first uses humor to make fun of others, while the second uses it to self critique themselves and those who direct it at both themselves and others alike. The first group employs the pen as a dagger on others, and the second sticks it to himself in a masochistic manner, at the extreme. The history is a witness to both types in our literature and media. As for the third, they are so few that you can consider them endangered. They must be kept under protection like other endangered species. How many writers are there who do not put others to litmus test; take their job very seriously and appreciate the importance of their writings? How many do not consider their own words “incontrovertible truth,” do not turn the columns they occupy into instruments of power, do not riddicule themselves or slap themselves while criticizing others, do not use humor not as a weapon but as instrument of cure?

08.25.2006