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Subject: Two Kinds of Humor. OFF TOPIC OF COURSE.

Author: Fernando Villegas

Date: 18:55:12 01/03/06


There are two kinds of humor.
One is aimed to get some fun, a smile, to lighten the weight of life. It is
purposely made for enhancing and curing our heart with that splendid show of
spirit that is humor in itself. It could be good or it could fail, but its
intention is always positive. That intention, solely, qualify humor as something
good.
Then we have unintended humor, the kind of humor the author creates
unsconsciously trying to be serious about a matter so unimportant that his very
seriousness make the reader or listener to laugh. You laugh of it and howewer is
a sad thing to see. You laugh but lateryou meditate in the deep imbecility of
human nature.
We have lots of this last kind here in CCC.
When you see so long threads about things like ... or like ...., followed with
such intensity, even fury, with egoes engaged to the full, with arguments coming
and going as if was being discussed the universal peace, then you laugh in this
last manner. What else? Nevertheless, nobody delete these pieces of metaphysics
off topic, childish materiel, sad material made of sound and nothingness. Nobody
complains that somebody is going berzek with a triffle. Nobody seems to see the
esential absurdity of such endeavour. Nobody laugh. The thread is followed suite
with passion. Preposterous seriousness prevails. Heated arguments comes. Insults
are said.  Flame wars begins.
Do not get me wrong. I like to see and read about this stuff. That's the reason
I am here since pleistocene. But I never forget what position this issue have in
my overall list of things to care. I never forget this is, exception made for
some dedicated human units, a hobby. HOBBY. Do you remember the meaning of the
word? An amateur passtime. Something to get fun and sometimes perhaps an
entertainning instruction. And specially a pretext to meet simpathetic people.
Like going to the movies. Like playing chess...
So humor is or should be on topic all the time. Humor is on topic in everything.
Humor is present specially in the mind of the best. The greatest intellect I
have ever met was a teacher in La Sorbonne, France. He never believed that to be
interested in the old Fermat problem was equal to be dead serious. He loved his
profession, but he loved more to put it in proportion to life.
I drunk with him several times and we talked of movies, literature, Anatole
France, soccer, painting, music, jazz, etc.
He was a man of many jokes and smiles. And he was extremely smart. Smart as my
friend Blincoe is, a very succesful professional in a very complicated
profession, but nevertheless now virtually booted because of his thread with me.
There are some very respected guys here that can insult, deride and kick in the
ass to anyone every other day and yet they are respected, adored and NEVER oh my
God deleted, no matter what.
There are others that in the judgement of an shrink are real sychotics and there
they are, spreading his illness and taken seriously into account as that
personage of the Peter Seller movie giving political absurd advices from his
garden.
So we probably will have not anymore -or lot less- the wisdom and grace of
Blincoe about chess computers and else. You can be happy. You got it. You can
now say this a storm in a spoon. Of course.
After so many lessons I have got along a life you will pardon me if I express
openly that in my personal scale to measure human intelligence, Certainly I do
not put, as a prime measure, the famous IQ, but common sense, which first
feature is to know how to put things is an adequate, reasonable perspective of
life as that teacher did all the time and my friend Blincoe does also.
There are many high IQ people here. So it is said. I suppose I must believe
them. But I am afraid that the attitude that compels some people to ask for
deletions, erasing, bannings etc anytime someone as Blincoe appears -or
Wittintong or Steen or many others- is, frankly speaking, a show of low, mean
intellect, of narrowness, of shallownes under the mask of deep thought.
Let me quote someone that sent me a private email:
"CCC is really becoming a place for Programming freaks and Mr.....type of Idiot
Savants as others are simply unwelcome or looked down upon...."
Nevertheless I will stay here, even if just to bother some assholes.
fernando



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