Aphorism #2: Red Decks, Red Decks Everywhere
A philosophy of humour
The Iowa Gambling Task is a rarity: a (successfully) replicated psychological experiment. In the “task”, subjects draw cards from four decks — two red, two blue. Each card financially rewards or punishes. The catch: the red decks are duds — stick to them and you’ll always lose. The question: how long before subjects figure it out.
Turns out, 50 cards. But — not consciously. After 50 cards test subjects can tell you the blue decks are better; it takes another 30 before they can articulate why. The gap between unconscious knowledge and conscious knowledge: 30 cards.
A Jungian way of thinking about the Iowa Gambling Task from (Jung’s heir to the Jungian throne) Marie Louise von Franz:
“To know if one has an inflation, a person has only to see if he or she gets on other people's
nerves. If so, one is probably a bit overestimating one-self, or underestimating oneself for with an inflation a person may have feelings of either superiority or inferiority.”
Also from the Jungians: the Fool precedes the Master — the one who can point and laugh precedes — indeed paves the way for — the sage.
Humour is a way of dancing with that “50 card feeling”. Long before you can articulate what’s off about a person you can tease them. Ego inflation and heaviness go together like smokers and nicotine. In the light of levity, overblown seriousness appears farcical. Long before the philosopher and scientist vivisect a phenomenon, the joker has tickled the nerve and found it living.
Of course, once we’ve entered this Wonderland it’s never one-directional. Humour becomes a game of communal shadow-boxing; things move too quickly for vivisection; culture moves grows reacts, ducks and dances. The fool rides the wave while the master drowns.
Sample Exercise: someone forwarded this 2-minute clip on WhatsApp yesterday. The first thing to note is the conspicuous timing of this (apparently) 90s comedy clip. Secondly, note the tone at 1:43.
