Last semester, the Law faculty introduced me to the basic legal aspects of intellectual property. Much to my delight, I found that within the legislation of the European Union concerning copyright there is an article in the so-called InfoSoc Directive which provides an exception, allowing for the use of a copyrighted work without infringing the rights of an author, if the use is for the sake of caricature, pastiche or parody.
And, as a Polish national, I was particularly inspired by this exemption to comment on the current state of society, in which humans are slowly losing their sense of humour and start to have sticks up in…everyone knows where. We set a restraining threshold on humorous expressions in the name of political correctness, forgetting that mocking the flaws of today’s world can be actually a meaningful tool to address those flaws and force society to rethink and repair what is not working, pointing to jobs which could be done better.
People have become terribly oversensitive. It is notably hard to swallow, I think, for me, being Polish, and my fellow Slavs, to observe how everyone needs to watch their mouth to the extent where it is forbidden to joke, particularly about personal characteristics like nationality, gender, political beliefs or so. Black humour and the ability to joke about yourself is sturdily grounded in our culture, and I think they play a big part of our coping mechanism. Kidding is facing and handling a harshly imperfect situation called life. And do not get me wrong – there still are jokes which are too offensive to be made!
But we cannot handle varying opinions anymore. The incomprehensible differences between us became sanctity instead of human-life-oddity. Look what happened to the Halloween costumes. Instead of choosing a costume we would fancy wearing, we need to choose one that is appropriate to wear – otherwise there is a risk of being “cancelled”. And let me tell you, the intended outcome, to “not hurt anyone”, only makes us distant and bitter. So next time, when you want to dress up as Mexican, take a nationality test. If you are lucky enough to uncover that you’re 0.1 per cent Mexican, congrats. You can wear a sombrero.
Rita Wiśniewska, a third-year European Law student