The essayist maintains that the inability of fundamentalists — whether religious or atheist — to laugh at themselves bodes ill for the future of cogent discourse and overall understanding.

TPM: The Philosophers’ Magazine | No laughing matter

Whatever happened to the laughter of the Enlightenment? OK, Kant was hardly a barrel of laughs. But Voltaire, Lessing, even Hume – these were writers in touch with their funny side. Humour was a symptom of their creativity. In contrast, these days, the heirs of the Enlightenment have lost their capacity to laugh – especially at themselves. And that’s as sure a sign as any that the Enlightenment is as creatively dead as the proverbial parrot.