I hate Philosophy!

April Fool!

I just realised I hadn't fooled anybody today. Mostly because I was asleep when everybody else was bustling around this morning getting ready to go out. Oddly enough, my brother didn't leave anything for me either. 

Anyway, practical jokes of any kind are a curious thing. Yes, they are childish and mostly confined to the pages of Enid Blyton but a surprising number of jokes are played in everyday life if you think about it.

I tease my friends all the time and they tease right back. (For example, I've just told Lizzie that I only want to visit her when she makes brownies... [She is feeling much better! :D]) But we know that there's nothing serious in it. In fact, I only tease people who I'm really close to and I know won't mind. But although it doesn't usually happen to me because I choose my victims/friends carefully, it can get out of hand.

So at summer camp there are lots of drunk men around and they get up to all sorts of silly things. Like shaving off someone's mustache, for example. They all thought it was hilariously funny but I'm sure when Gary woke up the next morning with a thumping headache and half a 'tache the next morning he felt terrible. Typically utilitarian, I find myself wondering whether the joke was worth the sadness of Gary at losing half his mustache. He was quite proud of it but it will grow back. I think it would have been different if he hadn't seen the funny side of it. The others might have repented and made up with him. But they would probably do it again.

It's hard to know where the line between a funny joke and an unfunny joke is. In the end it's safer not to play tricks on people but that's not really going to happen for everyone. So we have to predict whether the person will be upset by it or not. And if they're not we might think about whether we should really do it or just not. See, I think we are often naturally utilitarian. The problem is I don't know whether that's just logical old me or whether everyone thinks like that! But I like to think people do use utilitarianism a lot, especially if they haven't really thought about ethics before. But they use it with common sense, which softens the cold, calculating side of it. Utilitarianism with a human twist? Utilitarianism with common sense?