Here’s Gary Schteyngart on “The Rise of the Inflatable Chicken Resistance” (via Austin Kleon):
Frivolity and absurdity are kryptonite to authoritarians who project the stern-father archetype to their followers. Once the pants are lowered and the undies of the despot are glimpsed, there is no point of return…. What is happening to us is as serious as a guillotine. We must harness our best creative, humorous and frivolous selves in order to keep it from falling.
It won’t surprise you to know that I’m inclined to agree. But I take seriously the way that this approach seems precisely upside down to many “serious people,” especially those embedded in liberal institutions. A PhD-holding colleague told me the other day that they think the No Kings protests aren’t leading anywhere because they saw a row of people in inflatable costumes posing for pictures. I’m not saying these protests are the cat’s meow or anything, but I also would point out that relying on liberal institutions and high-minded, serious people to save us is an approach that has been failing us for decades now.
