> > > > "[An idea] can be stabbed to death by a joke [..]" -- Charles Brower.
>
> I'm not quite sure why, but that piece caused particular resonance within me.
>

As it did in me. See below.


> > On the other hand, Spinoza said something along the lines that, "a thing does not cease to be true just because it is not accepted by many."
>
> That just goes to show that the truth exists regardless of (wo)man. Specifically, regardless of whether we perceive it or not.
>

No. What I meant by my previous comments (about mediocrity and greatness, and that concepts do not necessarily speak for themselves), is that an idea at core must be honest -- and TRUE -- for it to be accepted by people, in the long run. And a true idea, when it is good, will upset the comfortable fictions in which people would otherwise prefer to believe. It will be met with resistance in the short term before it finally finds acceptance in the main.

That is why the best and most lasting kind of humour is not destructive... it does NOT hurt or belittle others purely for the sake of stabbing at people or confusing them. Joking is best when we can identify with the joke, because then it tells us a little more about ourselves. I find, for myself, that a topic being joked about can reveal a hurtful truth about myself; but the humour of the situation allows me to work through it, and show a new way of looking at the world.

Wolfspirit