I am very glad to find the show "Monty Python- village idiots" on YouTube so I don't have to make my own video for this post. In my opinion, this is one of the most sophisticated jokes in the Monty Python series.
TV program
An interview with a prestigious idiot in the community
"**(couldn't catch) is a idiot, a village idiot. Tonight we look at idiots in society."
The idiot:
"Idiot is a vital role to play in the modern rural society because this is the very real ** (couldn't catch it) for someone almost anyone can look down on and ridicule and this is the role that I and members of my family had fulfilled in the past 400 years."
"So you see that the idiot does provide a vital psycho-social service for this community."
"Oh excuse me, i see a coach party just arrived, i believe i shall have to fall off the wall, I am afraid."
The journalist:
"He also takes idioting seriously. He's up at 6 'o clock every morning, working on special training equipment designed to keep him silly."
".........."
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I really like this one very much.
I think there really are such similar roles in the society that individuals have to play, but they wouldn't gain as much prestige as in this Monty Python video. Also, nobody would care about. They may just discriminate people in those roles as always and never realize that it is their own stupidity and vanity that made them look down upon others. On the other hand, idiots could be of some therapeutic use for those unsatisfied people with no talents. Just like what they once have, a therapy for people to go and destroy glass wares.
I will go back to the topic of social role play now. I think this remind me of the role that the Japanese high school girls are playing. Whenever they need a not so intelligent stereotype in a conversation they will say "for example a high school girl ........"
I always wondered why so many young Japanese girls like cute silly things, why they like silly stories in "Shyojo Manga"( a kind of Manga intended for young girls, some are "daily exercises to keep them silly"), why they like to dress themselves in cute silly ways, why all the young girl artists have to start from making photo album with stupid silly posing in bikini to become famous? Now I have an answer, they, in their male-dominating society are supposed to be like that, be nice, beautiful, cute, sexy, innocent, mindless, stupid so that highly-pressured males can take them with not so much respect, with ridicule, and they can attribute large part of success of a female person to the sex appeal. This is all that they are requiring from females in the Japanese society. The girls are fulfilling their roles in the society. It could be a vital psycho- social role for the highly-pressured male-dominating society. I just wish that the girls are actually as sophisticated as the village idiots in the show.
I wish someone could say something to oppose me against the opinion above, on most of the Japanese girls.
It is nice to see some a little change in Japan. There are more women with career in the society (mostly doing minor works) and more girls in the universities now, so, even the most "masculine" departments like science and engineering had made up their minds to build "Lady's Room"s.
Notes:
1. Japanese girls are not all fulfilling the roles, but still there are still more than one should expact. It is not their fault after all.
2. There are a lot of smart and accomplished girls in my acquaintance in the university. but one cannot
Notes:
1. Japanese girls are not all fulfilling the roles, but still there are still more than one should expact. It is not their fault after all.
2. There are a lot of smart and accomplished girls in my acquaintance in the university. but one cannot
expact much from outside of the campus. Hopefully, these girls' great performance will change the society in the future.
3. One has to be absolutely mean and ruthless when critisizing something.
3. One has to be absolutely mean and ruthless when critisizing something.
2 comments:
An interesting and well thought out analysis, but I don't see how point 3 follows. Can't society be changed without being mean and ruthless?
Thank you for questioning. :)
When I said mean and ruthless, I meant that the criticizing person had to point out every fault sharply instead of mildly, to give out a bright laser beam of notice instead of a dull glow.
Forgive me if I haven't stated clearly the object, to which one have to be mean and ruthless. It should be the faults not a person. Of course it is complicated how the criticism should be carried out since the person is the carrier of the faults.
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