Introducing: "Nearly a laugh but really a cry"

Having spent several years thinking about having my own blog, I have a list of potential series/themes that I might do here. One I am starting up already is titled:

"Nearly a laugh but really a cry"

This is a line from the Pink Floyd song Pigs (Three Different Ones) (PF is one of my three favorite artists/groups). I likely wouldn't agree with the kind of people or institutions that Roger Waters (who I assume penned the lyric) described using this line. His application in the song itself is mixed, and often misunderstood (including one I like, the reference to "Whitehouse", which by the way doesn't describe the US President/government, but rather Mary Whitehouse, a conservative in Great Britain in the 1960s/1970s).

Regardless, I've always loved this line. As a happy, optimistic person, with a benevolent sense-of-life, my first reaction upon hearing horrors in the world (of most kinds) is to laugh, chortle, snicker, or whatnot. The sigh/frown/anger/etc. comes later. This is sometimes misunderstood by friends or others as my not taking an issue seriously, my not believing it could be true, or my not thinking that the event or action is a bad thing. I do my best to rectify that initial impression, to make my view clear. Abstracting from particulars, the usual chain is: a laugh..."Jeez!"... "That is awful/ridiculous/evil!!! And here is why..."

And this is why I love this Pink Floyd lyric. For me, it applies to things that are so extremely bad -- so anti-reality, anti-reason, individual-rights-violating, etc. -- that they first come across as ridiculous and surely made-up. They are nearly a laugh, but really a cry.

I will post items under this theme as they come up, and once I have 3 or more, I'll start an index/category page for them.