Elmer's Glue

[malthaussen]

56. Black humor works best for me.

I have noted that people on the cutting edge of a conflict, whether they be soldiers, health care workers, or disaster workers, often adopt what would seem on the surface to be callous, insensitive, and usually very dark slogans and jokes to get them through the next bit of difficulty. In Vietnam, it was "don't mean nothin.'" In George MacDonald Fraser's section in Burma, one of the men was always saying "You're all gonna die!" Or, there is the famous "March or die" of the Legion Etrangere. Though not familiar with the customs of the Sweet Science, I'd be willing to bet practitioners have their own vocabulary of dark encouragement.

Why this is so is an interesting question. I know that the sort of things that are usually meant to be encouraging seem fatuous and vacant to me, but "You're all gonna die" causes me to immediately resolve that I need to do all I can to make sure we don't all die. From the outside, this sort of language seems innately discouraging, depressing, and de-motivating. On the inside, it seems realistic, but is not meant to imply that the job won't be done -- just that it is not going to be much fun. It seems futile to try to assert that something that does suck, does not suck, but that suckage is not really relevant to the job at hand, which has to be gotten on with. I understand the military have a new slogan, "Embrace the suckage," which addresses this reality.

-- Mal