Harry Targ
Reddit
"Workers of the world, unite! You have nothing
to lose but your chains!". Karl Marx
“Comedians
of the world unite. You have nothing to lose but your jokes.” Harry
Targ
(Richard Pryor on racism and capitalism:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/TCFfmecFYpw)
The twenty-first century is strange. Most of the modest social benefits provided by many governments are being reversed. Contrary to expectations in a “post-Cold War” world, violence has increased and competition between Cold War adversaries continues. And to quote from Vijay Prashad, we are living in an “age of cruelty.” We are helpless observers as a holocaust is being perpetrated on the people in Gaza. And while a police state is rounding up “illegals,” convicted felons are being pardoned, (and some elected or appointed to office), masses of people are hitting the streets to protest virtually all these egregious immoralities perpetrated by ruling classes and political elites. And it has gotten to the point with these horrific developments that we must look to comedians to save us.
And before
we look askance at a defense of comedians, we should recognize that they
historically have stimulated us to think about the human condition. Paradoxically
profit and criticism have over the years conflicted. In the post World War Two
period a panoply of comedians have surfaced who generated popularity and
profit, and at the same time challenged the
evils of capitalism, war-making, class antagonisms, racism, and patriarchy.
For those of
us growing up in the fifties Tom Lehrer was cheerfully accessible while
communicating ideas about atomic war, hate, and militarism. And while Lenny
Bruce was too acerbic for some he spawned subsequent generations of very
radical comedic talents including George Carlin, Richard Pryor, and Lily
Tomlin. And then radical/political humor became mainstreamed on television
including Saturday Night Live, the Daily Show and the John Oliver program.
Television series such as MASH critiqued war, Other programs, some funny and
some serious, analyzed commercialism, greed, ruling classes, and racism.
So now in a period where democratic discourse is more threatened than ever, even more than the McCarthy era of the 1950s, fascist sectors of the ruling class, after attacking the universities, the media, protesters, and “foreigners,” are targeting the comedians, the last refuge of deep criticism of the US political economy.
As we rise to defend academic freedom in the universities, vibrant
curricula in K- twelve educational institutions, the right to protest
(and vote) and independent media, we cannot forget the comedians. Historically,
they have communicated radical ideas to larger sections of the population than many others who have resisted monopoly capitalism and war.
