If you can't beat 'em...

Without the intention of making your eyelids feel heavier than a bus load of Rick Wallers, I want to write a little about what I've learnt so far from writing my dissertation. I've found it a little frustrating to write, as it's often similar to writing a news article, in the sense that I have to keep all my observations trapped away in my brain and only write the crucial points. Which, for someone with a mind that's always in overdrive, I find it quite limiting that I can't waffle on and explore other things I've began to contemplate.

I've been researching political satire, which has meant I've had to look through history at how it began. Since there has been a democracy (which in terms of how long humans have been around for, hasn't been very long), there has been political satire. Once it became apparent that power was starting to reshuffle unevenly towards leaders, satire came alive in an instant. Ever since people were given power, there has been ridicule, mockery, and the art of embarrassing authoritative figures.

Satire says a lot about the human race, really. As soon as we feel someone has authority over us, as soon as we feel any less powerful, we can always turn to humour and ridicule to better our egos. And this is entirely what satire is based upon. It's the creative man's complaining. The action of laughing at someone we dislike has definitely become cathartic (and in terms of Gordon Brown, undoubtedly easy). Political satire is on the increase, and I predict that its popularity will only continue to have a inverse relationship with the public's apathy and despair towards UK politics.

Satire is a beautiful thing, because no satirist has any desire to change the world. Satire is an acknowledgement that politics is very reluctant to change, therefore it turns its attention to a much more productive cause instead, to make fun of politicians. One interesting, albeit slightly morbid, idea I've come across is that the reason we turn to humour a lot is because we know that we're immortal, and laughing eases this pain. We learn from a young age that we won't last forever (and if we don't catch on, the Lion King will gently break it to us.) I think if I learn any lesson in life, I'd like it to be that of the satirist - if you can't beat them, laugh at them.