Humor as a tool for social change
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We live in a time when the world can feel quite a lot like a horror movie. When there are no cataclysmic floods, there are rampaging wildfires. When there’s no deadly heat wave, there’s an unprecedented ice storm. One day it’s horrific violence, the next it’s a slide into autocracy. And through it all, multiple overlapping systems of oppression not only remain but seem to entrench themselves deeper each year.
It’s overwhelming to even write about, much less to live through. Having a sense of humor doesn’t solve any of these issues. It’s not a magical quick fix.
But what a sense of humor can do is relieve some of the tension. It can make the work of achieving justice feel a little bit less like a horror movie and more like a comedy. Humor is a powerful tool in combating cynicism and burnout and in developing a vision for a better world. Instead of causing the work for social change to feel draining, it can make it empowering.
