If we could just get these people to laugh – I think that could turn things around.
To have them catch themselves laughing joyfully about something that does not involve mass calamity, blown up buildings, or dead hostages.
Rather than drone strikes, I think we should try a different approach. Let’s kidnap extremist leaders and force them to watch a few episodes of Everyone Loves Raymond, or The King of Queens, or The Office. Or at least lobby our representatives to dump some defense dollars into researching what tickles the funny bone of an extremist?.
Because laughter allows us to forget our troubles (if only for a moment) – it is a uniquely human ability (sorry, I do not think those Hyenas are actually laughing) – and genuine laughter is one of the few human experiences that provides “oneness with the moment”.
And let’s be honest, if it’s a really, really, really good laugh, one of those so-hard-you cried-and-could-not-catch-your-breath laughs, you remember it forever. It gets stored in the laugh reservoir portion of our brain, so that we can draw upon this reservoir during those times when we’re stuck in the desolation desert.
I think extremists spend their entire existence in the desolation desert and their laugh reservoirs are a big sandy pit.
If you know any extremists, tell them a joke, try to get them to giggle (do not try to tickle them – that could be dangerous).
bendingtheneedle 