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How To Prick Pomposity
This story is perfectly true. A speaker was giving a talk on a particular aspect of psychology. His audience consisted of about a hundred people. Suddenly, one of the ladies in the audience launched into a diatribe on the superiority of women over men, emphasizing the inadequacies of the latter.
Not only that, she remarked, but women had to suffer, simply because men's efforts in all walks of life were so pathetic.
Now, bear in mind that this whole outburst was a complete non-sequitor. The speaker hadn't even touched on the subject of male or female superiority. However, finally she finished and sat back with her arms folded. Dead silence ensued, to be broken by her again, when she said;
"I really do try not to be patronizing to men."
Again, silence. The speaker looked at her for a few moments, then said;
"Well, I'm sure we all appreciate the attempt, Madam."
Still silence as the assembly let his reply sink in, then the whole place erupted into a deafening roar of laughter. Even the lady herself began to laugh, her pomposity well and truly destroyed. In fact, after the lecture, she went to the speaker and apologized, saying that she realized she went way over the top.
It's interesting to consider others ways in which he may have handled this incident. A man with less experience may have tried to placate her.
He may have attempted to defend his gender against what was, after all, an unwarranted attack. He might even have said that yes, he did find her remarks patronizing.
But his experience and his ability to think on his feet were such that with just those few well chosen words, the audience were confounded because they didn't expect such a riposte, and he was commenting on her attitude rather than her words. The very fact that she had the grace to laugh at herself, meant that she finally viewed herself from the outside.
Now personally, I do not subscribe to this idea that education should always be fun. That we should make everything a barrel of laughs for children, nor, for that matter, do I subscribe to the idea that nutrition should be loaded down with sugar.
However, there's a definite place for humour in learning, because it can make a very useful 'hook' to help attach certain facts. But how does it do this?
Basically, we're back to the old 'limited thinking' bit again. Humour can confound expectations by delivering a mild shock. By that, I mean that used in the correct and apt way, it can pull people up short from the way they always assumed they should think, and turning them on to examining a theory in a completely different light.
Used properly, humour is truth, however alien it may seem at the time
About this Author
It's interesting to delve into the meaning of humour, isn't it? We do hope you enjoyed this article, and that you'll enjoy a visit to Mike Bond's Website, especially to collect the 2 FREE downloads, which you may obtain simply by clicking on The Hypnosis Attraction
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