Sunday, April 01, 2012

Speaking of Loud Laughter ...

I was reading a post on "loud laughter" which finally evolved into a discussion as to what did it mean, was it "another term for derisive, cruel, mocking laughter or is it hearty laughter?"



Mocking is addressed over and over again in religious writing and in our lives.  Cruel and mocking behavior is always condemned, whether by laughter or otherwise.  The LDS prohibition on same comes in a list of unholy and impure practices that all seem bound up, at their core, with mockery and disrespect.

Which takes me to an aside.  A lot of what looks like disrespect is just clumsiness or bad cultural upbringing.  One thing I learned from grief is that if I was going to take offense at the clumsy, I would run out of time to do anything else.




2 comments:

Steven said...

Good question. Is LL sort of like the beat of music, something subtle that invites inappropriate behavior? Is LL "bad" because it implies lack of control over one's faculties? Certainly we believe in humor and laughter and smiles and happiness. Maybe it's like porn - you know when you hear it!

Sarebear said...

I've been concerned about the mocking of the mentally ill, as is newly a concern with shows like Betty White's Off Your Rockers (some skits seem to portray the elderly in confused, demented, or mentally ill ways) and a new game that's on Kickstarter, called Off Your Rocker.

There's a geeklist on Boardgamegeek.com, of "insane" games and some of them just make you cringe.

Anyway.

Waves hi after a long time!
sarebear