The Role of Humorists in Society

The Role of Humorists in Society “Some men see things as they are and ask why. Others dream things that never were and why not”, said by George Bernard Shaw (miscellaneous quotes). In society today, many people go about with things and don’t ask why they do such matter. In the article, “Corn-pone opinions” by Mark Twain, he uses a good example: he states that “fashion has established itself: it is admired, now, and no one laughs”. In other words, fashion is created, and people go along with it and never ask why they do so. Alain de Botton argues that humorists are not to entertain but “to convey with impunity messages that might be dangerous or impossible to state directly”. In agreement, humorists play a vital role in society. As an illustration to how humorists play a vital role in society is in the article “A Modest Proposal” by Jonathan Swift, who creates a plan for eating Irish babies. Swift, is criticizing the English for their abuses against the Irish. Swift thought that eating the Irish babies would solve the “Irish problem”. However, the plan is ridiculous because it is used to describe how the Irish is being treated. The meaning that's being read in the article is that English don't value the Irish life. Instead of Swift saying so, he uses the comparison of eating babies and the abusing of Irish people. For this purpose, criticisms are being made and people don't realize them but they send a strong message. Another example of how humorists play a vital role is society is in the article ‘Corn-pone Opinions”, Twain shows another example by stating “Our table manners, and company manners and street manners change from time to time, but the changes are not reasoned out; we merely notice and conformed”. In this quote Twain tries to describe the fact that many things are changing and no one take the time to notice it; they just gone along with it. In addition, society does not realize things that is going on. They just feel that when something is being said or done that it may be the right thing so they just go along with it because they feel they need self-approval from one another and never notice that it is affecting our society.