making mischief

Even on such a serious subject as animal rights, there has to be a ridiculous side, the human side, which can always show us how absurd they are and how we are also capable of behaving absurdly. There’s so much scope for making mischief here and even more if we are poking fun at ourselves at the same time. If we can show that we value vulnerability in ourselves and in others, we can show that we are always on an equal footing with others and incapable of being spiteful, which makes us seem far less dangerous . . . and what we have to say that much more intriguing. There is so much material to send up in our fellow humans - the meat eater who doesn’t look carefully at his food, who doesn’t think carefully about its origin, who is the ultimate victim of circumstance. Then there are the activists who are focusing so intently on important issues, they forget how to communicate and become misunderstood and labelled ‘weird’ and made the target of parody. Anyone without ideals can be made to look like a buffoon and anyone with ideals and too much zealotry, is just as good for a laugh! And the ultimately shallow guy who follows the crowd, who has social cool but very little else. It’s all potentially laugh-at-able. This is mischief mixed with harmlessness. If we keep a light-touch to what we are saying, even when being critical, then we establish ourselves as having a sense of humour. We are seen to be taking ourselves not too seriously if only to let what we do have to say about the important issues be taken that much more seriously.
The light touch allows us to go further than any sermonising. The combination of dynamic mischief-making and non-violence lets us say almost anything we want to say - and get away with it. Point made: no hurt feelings. Just a few lightly bruised egos and some self-deprecation to release any tension. That’s one way of doing it.