Adversarial Humor

It is very difficult to survive any military training without learning to laugh at one self, secretly or openly. This ability to laugh at one self in the adverse situation like the battle is developing a sense of adversarial humor. What it takes to laugh at oneself? Important is to note what it takes not to laugh at oneself. We have seen that the warrior communities of the past have a peculiar kind of sense of humor; they can laugh at the face of any thing, even death. That doesn’t really mean they have the best sense of humor but what it really means is that this is one way to keep them disengaged from many hardships.
This sense of humor that is born from battlefield is far from sarcasm. They do not laugh at semantics, neither the play of words impresses them but they laugh at dying and being alive. They may seem cruel to some people but their real sense of humor takes root in professionalism. It has to do something with learning lessons from every mistake that he does and luck gives him another chance to live. Sometimes this way he laughs at the naivety of destiny.
When we talk about humor in uniform one immediately relates to the namesake column in the magazine readers digest. But what is represented there is a small section of the vast subject. That is the humor in uniform. Any military organization banks on discipline and uniformity for efficient and smooth function. That makes it pertinent that all the military men are expected to behave in a certain manner, but when different personalities emerge in the scene as key players, it causes a difference in behavior. When somebody behaves in a completely different manner then it becomes a matter to laugh at.
Humor in uniform is not only related to laughing or joking around. More often than not the solution of a particular problem lies in humor. I have heard about a commander who had his life size picture in a closed room. Where the men could go and abuse him and thrash him and kick him. This man really had a courageous humor. But this solved many problems and the men could dissolve away their resentment without any harm to any body.
Then there is a story about retired Gorkha soldiers. The young boys of the villages were continuously engaged in fights. Sort of quarrels related to small things and quite a few times it climaxed to beatings and laathi and stones. There were a lot many older Gorkha soldiers retired from the army (Indian, British), veterans who had seen what it was like to fight and men who knew what death was. They tried to emerge to a solution for the frequent gang fights of the villages. One day they summoned up the handsome teenagers to a chautara and gave them one khukuri each and then told them to fight. Boys never fought after that day. This, sounding like an anecdote based on fiction, is the best example I have found of the sense of humor a soldier has. A soldier sees much of life and its opposite, to be amused by the play of words. But in general the adaptability that is a must cannot come without having a sense of humor.