Alex Sternick, in his article, Playing with Nonsense, offers the counterintuitive suggestion that nonsense can be a path to meaning.
In times of stress, uncertainty and confusion, it might seem that absurdist humour could be insensitive. But our sense of the absurd may have a powerful role to play in helping us let go of outdated ideas. This might help us embrace fresh perspectives that might provide a path through the chaos.
Alex cites a piece of research in which some participants were primed for an activity by reading a Kafka story. A control group didn’t read the story. The primed group then outperformed on a reasoning test. (It’s a small study so far from definitive).
He shares how he uses gibberish, a nonsense language each speaker makes up for themselves, as a way of shifting perspectives on challenges and dilemmas. He explains that noted holocaust survivor Victor Frankl, author of Man’s Search for Meaning, often used humour and paradox in challenging situations.
In our recent online trainings, we used an activity we call the Surrealist Game. Each participant writes a question and an unrelated answer, and then we jumble things up so when one person reads a question, someone else reads an unrelated answer. It’s absurd, but it seems to create a sense of fun and connection – so perhaps there is a meaning in that that might be lacking in some of the apparently more serious conversations going on in the world.
And when our sense of normality is disrupted – at it has been for so many of us this year – it can often provoke unexpected discoveries and insights.
Needless to say, it’s a judgement call when to try absurdist thinking of what are often sensitive situations. To do it, we have to let go of the idea that we should always know the solution and instead be willing to embrace uncertainty – which can often be surprisingly energising when we do it.