I get the joke, but to accept the humor means giving up. I’m not giving up because I know solutions that work.

October 17, 2024 by Joshua
in Humor

This cartoon from this week’s New Yorker looks like it’s riffing on our time’s situation. I get the humor it’s presenting, but for it to be funny and for me to laugh, we have to accept that things just are the way they are.


To me, to laugh at it would be like to laugh if during Apartheid they said:

“Heads Mandela goes to prison, tails the government cracks down harder on protests”

or if before the Montgomery bus boycott they said

“Heads Rosa Parks gets sent to the back of the bus, tails poll taxes deprive citizens of the right to vote”

Instead of accepting things, watching them deteriorate, I’ve developed strategies to restore health, security, safety, freedom, and liberty and they work. They create joy and gratitude. So I don’t find accepting things the comic does as funny. I see that acceptance as giving up and tragic. It deprives us of enjoying the best parts of life: helping people, alleviating suffering, and enjoying nature.

If you prefer to lead yourself and our world to health, security, safety, freedom, and liberty over giving up and would like to join us, contact me about my workshops after learning about them here: Can Leading Sustainability be fun and inspiring? YES! . . . and effective too.

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