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Humour is definitely a way to de-fang the world, and smooth over difficult situations. The "making other people" laugh bit is interesting, considering the smile / bared teeth dichotomy.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm not saying there's a link, but that's very far from disproving a link.
How is one being a clown related to sadness if the distribution of sad people is same irrespective of profession?
"substantial number who don't" and "large number of people who don't" is not disproof of a link.
A substantial number of people with cancer never smoked, and a large number of smokers don't get cancer. That sentence is completely true despite the strong link between the two.
Also I was specifically talking about the artists and bipolar claim, not clowns. But where is that info about the distribution of sad people? I don't see it in the article. Or was it a hypothetical?
That “Rorschach test” section is weird, someone basically decided to summarize some random book.
It echoes the section about internal / external contrast (happy facade, sad inside).
Point:
Oh, thoughtless crew!
Ye know not what ye do!
Attend to me, and shed a tear or two —
For I have a song to sing, O!
All:
Sing me your song, O!
Point:
It is sung to the moon
By a love-lorn loon,
Who fled from the mocking throng, O!
It's a song of a merryman, moping mum,
Whose soul was sad, and whose glance was glum,
Who sipped no sup, and who craved no crumb,
As he sighed for the love of a ladye.
Doesn't seem paradoxical to me at all. If you learn enough about the world, quite a lot of it turns into a big joke. It's a surreal feeling. Like nothing you do matters because it's all just an absurd joke.
That “Rorschach test” section is weird, someone basically decided to summarize some random book.
There's a related phenomenon I've seen a lot, sometimes firsthand, of people who consider themselves shy while others consider them the life of the party.
Being shy doesn't mean you are silent. It means you have to use energy and courage to break that silence. So while most people would say someone who doesn't dare to talk is shy, it is totally possible to still be shy and be the life of the party. As an introvert who has zero stage fright and good talking skills: I am still an introvert. Being around people costs me energy, while for extroverts not being around people…
I have a lot of resistance to go and meet people, break ice, try and engage in conversations even with people I know very well or supposed to work with on a regular basis. I feel drained afterwards and need a break after every meeting. The meeting itself usually goes well, and I am fairly engaged even if not the most talkative -- if the subject matter of discussion is my work or something I am reasonably interested in I might be the most vocal even -- and people who meet me (without knowing me and my preferences closely) might very well picture me as a "normal" or even an extroverted person.
But (I just came up with this thougt experiment:) if someone were to interrupt my social or professional meetings at any random point and give me a choice of either continuing or immediately going back to "me time" without any consequences -- I think I would choose the latter 90% or more of the time.
There's a related phenomenon I've seen a lot, sometimes firsthand, of people who consider themselves shy while others consider them the life of the party.
I always figured it was just human nature, I think it is something like. Interacting with unknown people is slightly stressful, you feel this stress yourself but it is hard/impossible to see in others(unless they actually are really bad with interaction). so when self diagnosed most people will say they are introverts, or on the introvert side of the graph(they feel this way based on what they see). but when graded e…
Tough crowd. :p