Jerry Seinfeld’s concerns about a “creepy PC” phenomenon on college campuses is resonating with those who worry about societal changes that are making the U.S. into the cultural equivalent of one of those playgrounds with a rubberized surface. The ultra-safe playgrounds have also come into question in recent years as parents realize that children may need to get a little bit hurt here and there in order to learn. Their cognitive development actually depends on the occasional “ouch!”
Think of comedy as the intellectual playground of adult life. It isn’t a completely safe place for a reason. Comedy stimulates the mind and pushes us to think about things that may be uncomfortable. We love comedy because it makes us laugh, think and learn.
It also helps us connect, and to forgive ourselves and each other. For example: When my husband and I listen to a comedian make critical jokes about women or wives and my husband and I both laugh hysterically, I am having a fun learning moment where I see how my own, ahem, imperfect behavior can impact the people around me, and my husband realizes with relief that I can laugh at my own stereotypical flaws. It’s a bonding moment. The same thing can happen over a joke about men and husbands, or over a racial joke in a mixed-race audience. Laughing at each other and ourselves is incredibly therapeutic. At a time when in-person, human interaction is being eroded by technology, we need to look very carefully at any effort to dull or safety-coat the moments that precipitate connection.
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Some have pushed back fairly convincingly on Seinfeld, arguing that the reaction to comedy on college campuses is generational and nothing more, and that comedians ought to adjust their content for today’s easily-offended and overly-protective (of each other) young adults. In other words, “Seinfeld, know your audience, don’t diss them.”
This seemed somewhat fair to me until I read the open letter to Seinfeld from a college student on the Huffington Post. The student wrote that “comedy in our progressive society today can no longer afford to be crass, or provocative for the sake of being offensive.”
Wow. Did I miss the memo that our entire society is now “progressive,” a political term synonymous with far-left liberal?
Ah, no. I didn’t. Because this kid is not a legitimate commentator on “society.” He hasn’t left most of the comforts of childhood yet. Most of us don’t know squat about “society” before we graduate from college. When I was that age, I knew what my friends thought and what we were into. But I also recognized, unlike the young man who wrote the letter to Seinfeld, that my privileged friends and I did not represent all of society.
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The other troubling thing about the student’s letter is that it seems to me that any pontification about American society, by an adult of any age, should contain the word “free” or “freedom.” Shockingly, these words make no appearance in the letter. And I think this is the heart of what I’m worried about, and what Seinfeld and other comedians are worried about.
If upcoming generations are intolerant of any unpleasantness, freedom itself is at risk, because freedom is not safe. It doesn’t have a rubberized surface. Freedom is messy. And glorious. And important for human progress.
Generations of Americans have understood that freedom comes with some scraped knees and bruised feelings. We’ve understood that taking a risk can be exhilarating and productive — or it hurts and we learn.
That’s why Seinfeld called the PC culture “creepy. ” An aversion to freedom, and all its imperfections, is creepy in the context of the society I hope I still live in.
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What Jerry Seinfeld Gets Right About ‘Creepy PC’ Culture originally appeared on usnews.com
