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From: ams@hou4b.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.flame
Subject: Re: Geez people!
Message-ID: <1110@hou4b.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 20-Aug-84 20:24:01 EDT
Article-I.D.: hou4b.1110
Posted: Mon Aug 20 20:24:01 1984
Date-Received: Tue, 21-Aug-84 03:31:47 EDT
References: <459@houca.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Information Systems Laboratories, Holmdel, NJ
Lines: 30

Well, I haven't learned any new words in school last term, so I am
really having a hard time trying to express myself on this one. 
But please, bear with me...

A joke is supposed to be humorous: it is supposed to make people
laugh.  That is what a *joke* is.  Now, there are other forms of
humor.  A witty remark, for example, or a *pleasantry*, might make
one's listners chuckle.  There is also *black humor* (cf Evelyn
Waugh, taught in many schools): this is intended to shock people
with the realisation that they are finding amusement in something
that offends their sense of ethics.

Now, in which form of humor was the President indulging?  Did you
laugh?  Was there some unexpected punch-line that caught you off
balance?  Or was it a very *witty* remark in response to some
situation?  Or was the president trying, through black humor, to
get us to realize that the spectre of nuclear war is very horrible
and that we should do everything in out power to avoid it? 
Somehow I can't really buy any of these alternatives.

Actually, I think that the man just does not think about what he
says.  This can be called unaware, or if you prefer, insensitive. 
Another alternative might be that he thought the remark was truly
amusing.  In which case I wonder.  When *I* think about bombing I
think about dismembered bodies and people screaming.  What do you
think about?

		Andrew Shaw AT&TISL
		834-4085 HO 1C-412A
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