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Abstract
Humor is, among other things, a form of critique in American politics. This is particularly true with regard to public policy about which we are sensitive. One aspect of the Bush anti-terror policy that was the subject of a great deal of humor was the color-coded warning system administered by the Department of Homeland Security under its first Director, Tom Ridge. This policy was the subject of so many jokes that it became an embarrassment. This article examines that situation.
Notes
*Prepared for the conference “Política Criminal de la Guerra,” Abans i després de l'11-S 2001 i de l'11-M 2004 (a Estats Units i a Europa), Universitat de Barcelona, March 9–10, 2005. With appreciation to Roberto Bergalli and my friends in Barcelona for giving me an opportunity to write from some distance outside my country and to Aaron Lorenz, Tom Hilbink, Susan Burgess and Christine Harrington for encouraging serious attention to humor.
40 In Europe, humor on this more complex color issue has surfaced in the form of a doctored box of Uncle Ben's rice billed as a box of “Uncle Dubya's Condoleezza Rice” touted as providing “Cold War Flavor in a Post Soviet Reality.” (Figure )
39 Giuliano Ferrara, “La fascinacion de la ‘doctora Rice’,” Panorama, Milan, February 17, 2005; reprinted in La Vanguardia, February 21, 2005, p. 38. Ferrara speaks of Rice having an “exotic strength” that is related to race, sex and (perhaps of interest here) her academic background.
38 The fascinating thing, particularly evident from Europe, is the new color coding that has emerged since the election of November in 2004. This is the color coding of the Bush Cabinet, particularly the Attorney General's Office, occupied since early February of 2005 by Alberto R. Gonzales and the position of Secretary of State occupied by Condoleeza Rice.
37 Issues raised by Senate Democrats about Chertoff's role in formulating interrogation policy did not materialize after he said during hearings that he thought torture was wrong.
36 The first nomination, that of former New York Police Commissioner and protégé of former New York Mayor Rudolf Giuliani, Bernard Kerik, ended in a withdrawal of the candidate's name due to the discovery of numerous legal and social improprieties in his background.
35 Barrington Moore, Jr., Injustice: The Social Bases of Obedience and Revolt (New York: M. E. Sharpe, 1978); James C. Scott, Domination and the Arts of Resistance: Hidden Transcripts (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990); Mindie Lazarus-Black and Susan F. Hirsch, Contested States: Law, Hegemony and Resistance (New York: Routledge, 1994); Aristide R. Zolberg, “Moments of Madness,” Politics and Society 2:2 (1972), pp. 183–207.
34 Jacqueline Urla, “Outlaw Language: Creating Alternative Public Spheres in Basque Free Radio,” in Lisa Lowe and David Lloyd (eds), The Politics of Culture in the Shadow of Capital (Durham: Duke University Press, 1997); see also Oskar Negt and Alexander Kluge, The Public Sphere and Experience (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1993).
33 Robert C. Ellickson, Order Without Law: How Neighbors Settle Disputes (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1991); Gad Barzilai, Communities and Law: Politics and Cultures of Legal Identity (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2003).
32 See John Brigham, “The Newer Colossus: American Power and Symbols of Freedom after September 11,” presentation given at the University of Connecticut, November 2001.
31 Following revelations in the spring of 2004 about the tortures in Abu Graib prison by American soldiers my family was exposed to efforts by New York comedian Patrice O'Neill, at the Boston Comedy Club, to find the right tone for jokes about this series of events. After awkward failures focusing on the torture itself, the character of the American service personnel involved developed as a successful object of ridicule.
30 It certainly seems as if acceptance of The Daily Show's “Mess-O-Potamia” is related to other laughable failures like the codes as much as more clearly related policy failures like the failure to adequately supply the American troops in Iraq.
28 “I urge you to make automatic your reaction to each adjustment in Terror Alert Level by practicing, perhaps with family or friends, your own interpretive behavior as it corresponds to each Animal Code. (Costumes shouldn't be necessary, and would be cumbersome in the event of an attack.) Constantly monitor the Dept. of Homeland Security website or FoxNews.com.”
27 In a fascinating case from the early 20th century in America, Patterson v. Colorado, Justice Holmes held that a cartoon depicting judges of the Colorado Supreme Court as puppets to capital, which had landed the cartoonist in jail for contempt, was not protected by the First Amendment to the US Constitution.
26 A group calling itself “World In Conflict” proposed that citizens should wear color-coded buttons to match the alert level, thereby starting conversations about appropriate behavior for each level. See < http://www.nwcitizen.us/wic/Quickly/Publicbaffledby terroraler.html >.
25 Such as dancing at the second inaugural balls, bodies coming back to the US from Iraq (these are not allowed to be shown at all), or even the ailing Chief Justice of the United States swearing George W. Bush in for a second term.
24 James C. Scott, Weapons of the Weak: Everyday Forms of Peasant Resistance (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1985).
23 One of the tensions over criticism of the war of any sort is the impact of criticism on Americans at risk in the war. “In harm's way” is the conventional term. The common conception is that criticism demoralizes the troops and encourages the enemy.
22 The “scream” uttered by American Presidential candidate Howard Dean during a political rally is an exception. Its treatment by comedians signaled the end of his campaign for the Democratic Presidential nomination.
21 Southknoxbubba.net credits Mike Hollihan for a version of the code from February 14, 2003.
20 Christopher Lee, “Hill Agency Assails Security Alert System,” Washington Post, August 13, 2003.
19 When checked on January 25, 2005 the warnings from November 10, 2004 were still up indicating the “current threat level”(www.dhs.gov) was “elevated,” that is, “significant risk of terrorist attacks.”
18 I am struck here by the centrality of sound or pronunciation in determining which direction we are taken … into confusion or understanding.
17 “On Myth, Considered as a Method for Legal Thought,” Law and Critique 15 (2004)
16 “On Myth, Considered as a Method for Legal Thought,” Law and Critique 15 (2004)
15 “On Myth, Considered as a Method for Legal Thought,” Law and Critique 15 (2004), p. 163.
14 “On Myth, Considered as a Method for Legal Thought,” Law and Critique 15 (2004), pp. 159–181.
13 Law, in this sense as part of politics, is based on the belief that human action, choice and the social world can be constrained through human action, choice and the social world. Politics is more than this and I will get to some of how much more that it is, perhaps, in time.
12 The blue and the green are reversed in the gay pride flag and the United States Department of Homeland Security has not included lavender at the bottom as a color in its code.
11 “The latter may occur when the perceiver has too strong an emotional attachment to the violated principle; this kind of situation is discussed in a later section. In instances where N is lacking, the perceiver may be offended or threatened by a V interpretation rather than being amused.”
10 “The latter may occur when the perceiver has too strong an emotional attachment to the violated principle; this kind of situation is discussed in a later section. In instances where N is lacking, the perceiver may be offended or threatened by a V interpretation rather than being amused.”
9 “The necessary and (jointly) sufficient conditions for the perception of humor are: 1. The perceiver has in mind a view of the situation as constituting a violation of some affective commitment of the perceiver to the way something in the situation ought to be. 2. The perceiver has in mind a predominating view of the situation as being normal. 3. The [1] and [2] understandings are present in the mind of the perceiver at the same instant in time.” In his discussion, Veatch refers to 1 as the Norm (N), 2 as the Violation (V) and 3 as “Simultaneity.”
7 Sigmund Freud, “Humor,” International Journal of Psychoanalysis 9 (1928), pp. 1–6; see also Milan Kundera, The Joke, trans. Michael Henry Heim (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1983); Arthur Asa Berger, “Popular Culture,” in An Anatomy of Humor (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction, 1998), pp. 97–120; Mary Beth Stein, “The Politics of Humor: The Berlin Wall in Jokes and Graffiti,” Western Folklore 48:2 (1989), pp. 85–107. An excellent bibliography of works in English is available at the Humor Society website and was compiled by Don N. F. Nilsen at Arizona State University. It includes the work of Alan Dundes and Alison Dundes Renteln; some of this has a particular bearing on law.
6 Class Struggle Is the Name of the Game: True Confessions of a Marxist Businessman (New York: William Morrow, 1983); 2nd expanded edn entitled Ball Buster? True Confessions of a Marxist Businessman (New York: Soft Skull Press, 2003).
5 Parker Brothers.
4 Note from Aaron Lorenz.
3 The extraordinary map titled “NewYorkistan” (Appendix A) by Maira Kalman and Rick Meyerowitz that appeared on the cover of The New Yorker, December 12, 2001 is a remarkable exception to the generally strained humor surrounding the attacks of September 11 and the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.
2 The New York Times.
1 Sut Jhally, Media Education Foundation, Northampton, Massachusetts (2004).