Satire is the Highest Form of Dissent?

Though Thomas Jefferson never said, “Dissent is the highest form of patriotism,” the well-applied use of satire is certainly one of the highest forms of dissent. Jonathan Swift, after all, is more remembered for his grim irony in castigating the British and Irish for their collective humanitarian failures than for any contributions to the culinary arts.

Mad Magazine reigns supreme in creating a satirical crucible through which all subjects, social, cultural, political, artistic and philosophical typically pass. The difference between valid satire and mere mockery being, of course, the elements of truth contained therein, it is sometimes difficult to rule out former as as being buried so deeply in the latter as to be inconsequential, particularly during political campaigns. The editors of Mad would likely say that if such a line is drawn, they erase it, but nonetheless credibility rests on facts in satirical endeavors, humor being in the manner of delivery.

All this comes to mind partially as a result of hearing, for the umpteenth time, that horrid, superciliously intoned little chant that goes “Mmmm, mmmm, mmmm, Barack Hussein Obama…” as sung by the children in that “unauthorized” Burlington Township School District video that is making the rounds. The message being obvious and well-analyzed elsewhere, let us not forget how disturbingly cloying and memetically insidious the song is, in and of itself. Even the 1910 Fruitgum Company, acknowledged masters of the form, would be hard-pressed to corkscrew such a tenaciously mind-numbing ditty into the listener’s skull.

[youtube HkxAf6RxC-g nolink]

—

The mind reels. The brain, in a desperate attempt to exorcise the alien and excruciatingly insufferable mental loop, invents its own lyrics to alleviate the suffering, at least temporarily:

Ooooo, Ooooo, Ooooo

Barack Hussein Obama

Ooooo, Ooooo, Ooooo

I’ll tell my daddy and momma

Two, four, six, eight

Let’s build a liberal fascist state

Ooooo, Ooooo, Ooooo…

The President of the United States is

Black so all dissent is racist

Ooooo, Ooooo, Ooooo…

Remember all that you are taught

His problems all are Bush’s fault

Ooooo, Ooooo, Ooooo…

Little ones to him belong

We are weak but he is strong

Ooooo, Ooooo, Ooooo…

Redistributive justice rules

So we will be our Leader’s tools

Ooooo, Ooooo, Ooooo

Barack Hussein Obama

Ooooo, Ooooo, Ooooo

I’ll tell my daddy and momma

But not even Weird Al Yankovic would touch that one. Better to catch a chunk of concrete upside the head at a G20 protest in the act of dissent than go there, such dissent, contrary to the President’s own honest assessment, being instantly equated with the evils of race-hatred by those who would silence opposing viewpoints. Well-heeled anarchists can surely yell “no borders, no banks,” block traffic and hurl garbage all day to further the destruction of capitalism. That’s healthy, and double-plus so for those who favor the particular dissent that would herald the end of the aforementioned economic system.

Thus, the temptation to round up a gaggle of youngsters to sing the horrid little satirical ditty of unknown origin mentioned above, record it on a cell phone, and snag a cheap zillion hits by posting it to YouTube is quashed. Mmmm, mmmm, mmmm.

But, really, nobody does it better than these folks:

The People’s Cube – Correct Opinions for Progressive Liberals – Political Humor & Satire

Funny stuff, highly recommended, and fans of Thomas Jefferson will likely approve.