De omgekeerde wereld - rebooted

Lately, I’ve found myself captivated by what, for lack of a better word, I will refer to in Flemish as de omgekeerde wereld.The Middle Ages were like a double-edged sword, wielded with great care and expertise via tradition, hierarchy and religious lore. Those were the arms wielding the blade. And with the blade itself, a status quo was put in place. To keep it in place, a pressure valve was installed. De omgekeerde wereld, the flip-side of the medieval coin.The carnival. The feast of fools. A clear and well defined cultural space wherein the rules did not apply, where the lowest could mock the highest and potty humour ruled supreme.There are, of course, some wonderfully colourful examples of this.Take the droleriën, or misericords, of Liège. These are small carved ledges on the underside of folding choir seats. When the seat was raised, the ledge allowed a monk or clergyman to lean while appearing to stand during long services. Because they were hidden from view, carvers had great freedom. Which is why they are filled, very much in the spirit of de omgekeerde wereld, with fantastical, humorous and grotesque imagery. Creatures defecating, demons grinning, the sacred and the absurd sharing the same piece of oak. The picture at the top of this piece now makes more sense.Here in Ghent, our most notable tribute to de omgekeerde wereld is Nestor, one of Belgium’s many Manneken Pis statues. A small boy, cheerfully urinating, installed as a permanent fixture in one of Europe’s most beautiful medieval cities. He has been there for centuries, a remnant of times passed.Then there is the famous jester, Triboulet. At the moment of this story he served King François I of France. Amidst celebrations, where beer and wine had run rather wildly, Triboulet, courage generously supplemented by drink, smacked the king firmly on the bottom.I always imagine the scene like a drama. The music stops. People freeze. The breath leaves the room. Suspense so sharp it could cut through steel.And the king proclaims:TO THE GALLOWS WITH YOU, unless you produce an apology to outshine this atrocity.The jester looked at his king and said: “I am so dreadfully sorry, Sire. I thought you were the queen.”He kept his head. We know not the queen’s opinion on the matter.But there it is, clear as day. Humour as a pressure valve, because without it, the whole thing collapses.Which brings me to now.The hierarchy still exists but it has become much less linear or clear. The powerful once relied on tradition and extravagant displays of wealth to uphold the illusion of power. De omgekeerde wereld upheld the illusion of freedom. These two things harmonised. The worlds intersected and the machine kept running.Now we have people who wield world-shaping power through global policy, through central banks, through algorithms. This kind of power doesn’t need tradition to sustain itself. And so de omgekeerde wereld quietly disappears. Everything becomes clean. Being tolerant or moral comes to mean only saying things that could not possibly hurt anybody’s feelings. Cancel culture becomes the norm. Add into the mix the brewing uncertainties of our time and what you have is a pressure cooker, full of explosive ingredients, with no valves in place.The whole thing might collapse. It has happened before and at some point, it will happen again.Now, many of you might be cheering this on. But students of history will notice a pattern. Hierarchy worms its way back into the mix regardless, a new system born from the ashes of the old. I strongly believe in building new communities from the ground up alongside all that exists. Revolution leads to a power vacuum that quickly fills. Durable communities, built slowly from the ground up, is what we should be striving for.But that takes time, and the pressure is building.Bring back the potty humour. Speak truth (and poop) to power. Cultivate tolerance by taking responsibility for your own emotions rather than policing everyone else’s.It is high time to install that pressure valve.Bring back the jesters, say I!You know you want more you kinky history nerd you Get full access to Kobi One at kobione.substack.com/subscribe