What a Humane World Looks Like: Maintaining a Sense of Humor

How many activists does it take to change a lightbulb?

None. Activists can't change anything.

I use this joke in a talk I give about compassionate, effective vegan activism to demonstrate the importance of maintaining a sense of humor when educating others about and/or dealing with challenging global issues. Focus on the state of the world for too long, and most of us are going to want to crawl into bed and stay there. (Or watch a lot of TV. Or go shopping. Or find other ways to distract ourselves from the rollercoaster to oblivion that we seem set on riding.) I also use the joke to point out that many activists and humane educators are quickly branded as "Debbie Downers" if we spend too much time pointing out all the doom and gloom around us without injecting a little humor (and sharing positive solutions). If we're too serious and angry and despairing when communicating with others about important issues, we're only going to cause more harm. (Of course, I'm not suggesting that we underplay or make light of the cruelty, destruction and suffering occurring daily.)

Lately I've come across some great examples of people and organizations using humor to bring attention to an important issue. Here are a few I found especially useful:

Recently The Onion, a satirical news source (not always age-appropriate for students), ran a story titled "Children of All Ages Delighted by Enslavement of Topsy the Elephant." A couple years ago their "Onion News Network" produced a "news story" asking if animals themselves should be doing more for the animal rights movement. I'm a fan of The Onion, and they often have stories that are great for deconstructing our society and culture and sparking critical thinking.

Cartoonists like Barry Deutsch and Dan Piraro, of Bizarro fame, offer great commentary about important social issues. I recently happened upon this Bizarro comic of a woman sitting at a lawyer's, saying "I want to sue PETA and Amnesty International for 'pain and suffering' for making me aware of the pain and suffering caused by my life style choices."

And, in the realm of effective social media humor, shortly after the BP Gulf oil spill occurred, a new Twitter account, @BPGlobalPR, appeared, purporting to be run by a BP representative. However, with tweets such as these:

• Obama says there will be more oil before this is all done. Dibs!
• If you want to help clean up. Drive your cars fast and often. Let's melt those glaciers and dilute this mess!
• Catastrophe is a strong word, let's all agree to call it a whoopsie daisy.
• The good news: Mermaids are real. The bad news: They are now extinct.

the account is obviously a satirical site meant to use humor to bring attention to the issue. @BPGlobalPR has nearly 170,000 followers (more than the actual official BP account).

Remember, too, to maintain a sense of humor when people challenge your values and views personally. For example, several years ago, a few of my colleagues took advantage of a raffle offering a free side of "beef" that a co-worker was promoting and relentlessly teased me about buying several tickets on my behalf so that I could "win." If I'd shown offense or tried to share why my values were important to me, it would have triggered them to escalate; instead, I stayed nonchalant and smilingly invited them to go right ahead. The joke quickly became tiresome to them when they realized I wouldn't "take the bait" and they moved on (and at least a few were impressed at my calm and humor and were more thoughtful about repeating such an action in the future).

There's nothing funny about cruelty or destruction or suffering. But we can use humor as an effective tool for introducing people to difficult topics in a more palatable way, and for maintaining our own sanity as we work for a humane world for all.

~ Marsha

Image courtesy of Jenny Rollo.

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