Ward Churchill, Alan Watts, and The Joker

[Freedom_from_Chains]

Tuesday, February 15 2005 @ 05:13 PM PST
Contributed by: Admin
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Ward Churchill's post-9/11 essay, "Some People Push Back", has lately been the cause of fulmination and frothing on the political right, discomforted squirming on the left, and a new-found affection among "centrist" politicians for the rhetoric of the McCarthy era.

Ward Churchill, Alan Watts, and The Joker

by David L. Rick
February 15, 2005
CommonDreams.org

Ward Churchill's post-9/11 essay, "Some People Push Back", has lately been the cause of fulmination and frothing on the political right, discomforted squirming on the left, and a new-found affection among "centrist" politicians for the rhetoric of the McCarthy era. Observers of all stripes seem to be asking some of the same questions:

How could Professor Churchill say such things?

How dare he offend the memory of those who died on 9/11?

Why should we let him teach impressionable students?

Hasn't he gone completely beyond the bounds of reasoned and polite discourse?

Indeed, he has. Ward Churchill is truly a man for our times. And what times these are: Each day, while we shed tears for 3000 victims of an event now over three years in the past, eight times as many die of malnutrition. Each day. We tally the toll of our brave soldiers who've died "bringing freedom to Iraq", but we can't be bothered about those who died when "freedom" landed on them. Our military leaders "don't do body counts"; Neither, apparently, do our religious leaders. It's a time when I feel I should be rereading George Orwell, but a few minutes of listening to the day's "sound bites" reminds me that reality beggars fiction.

So instead of Orwell, I've been thinking about Alan Watts. Watts, who died in 1973, was a philosopher and scholar of comparative religion. He is probably best known as an interpreter of Zen philosophy for Western lay-people, and many of his lectures from the 1960's are still broadcast on my local community radio station.

One of these lectures is titled "The Joker", and in it Watts discusses that archetypical character also known as "The Jester" or "The Fool". The role of this personage is to say what none dare say, to laugh at kings, sneer at nobles, break taboos, and offend polite society. Who would want such a person around? Nobody -- and everybody! So he persists, from Shakespeare, clear through to the Comedy Channel. Because without someone to parody them, our societies become parodies of themselves, freezing into some kind of brittle ice sculpture which we must all circle on tiptoe. The Joker smashes this fragile edifice. Thus he proves, by our laughter, tears, or outrage, that we are still genuine people, not merely automatons.

The Joker mocks all, and defers to no one. The rules and roles of convention do not apply to him. He is beyond it all, but he can play any role, for he is the Wild Card.

Alan Watts often quoted an Eastern aphorism: “When two Zen Masters meet on the road, they need no introduction; thieves and rogues recognize one another immediately.” Watts, who had as much rogue in him as scholar, would have recognized Professor Churchill right away. It took me a bit longer.

I met Ward Churchill several weeks before he became the subject of irate editorials and self-righteous radio talk shows. We had a certain issue in common, and he was kind enough join me in addressing a meeting of my local City Council. I spoke first, choosing my words and arguments carefully, wanting to sound logical, conciliatory and firm. When Churchill strode to the podium, and the atmosphere changed. He towered over the podium, some strange cross between evangelical preacher and Cherokee warrior. His words were forceful, angry, accusatory. He made his point, but he was not polite. I was afraid that one or two of the council members might melt under his stare and leave us short of a quorum. But I soon stopped worrying about the Council’s impression of me: I could have done anything short of dropping my pants and still been considered a moderate. (We won the issue.)

(con't) http://www.infoshop.org/inews/article.php?story=20050215171352869