April fool's day has been a feature of life in my country for my lifetime. An opportunity to play practical jokes on people we know. And of course with media in this country, they like to participate too. The nature of the fooling is to catch others out and make a story or situation which is untrue, to make a fool of another.

Our British humour is at the best of times quite cruel, often we base it on mishap and often its based on tragedy. We find room to laugh in the face of adversity. Yet April fooling is more about slapstick and not about malice. We don't really do malice well in this country for the danger of reprisal is so near. The joke taken too far, the collusion required to make a joke or foolishness work requires an element we all find most important, the element of trust.

We need to have trust and the ones we trust most are those who are by their actions, trustworthy. Trustworthy people in our lives love us and so we can take the jokes and foolishness that usually ensue. And jokes do require trust. When trust is lost, jokes take on different dimensions, malice, cruelty and worse debasement of ourselves.

Some people dont really understand the extent of foolish pranks, because they don't really understand the limits of jokes or foolishness, they never learned and they get pleasure in the act of deception and get a kick out of putting down others.

How can we discern what is going on when we may be involved in foolery? it's a hard call, and as we get older we become aware just how far if there is a distance to go before a joke wears thin and the joke is nothing more than a cruel manipulation to make others feel better at our expense.

Harsh is our world. We really do need a laugh and a joke. Yet the danger is often manifest as people take it too seriously, don't join in, don't see the funny side and don't like their personal ridicule.

We are in danger if we don't collude in the sense that we are kill joys and party poopers if we don't play along. The joke player will always need our indulgence for the joke and foolery to work. In fact they rely on us not taking the joke too seriously and will admonish us for our seriousness if we don't get it.

If we do grow to understand the real essence of this behaviour, we find the ugly manifest behaviour of the bully behind this pranksters charter. There is certainly this element in joking around. There is a need to pull someone down, to make them right sized for their boots, we think we know what's good for them and persist in our behaviour because we have the right.

Without doubt there are plenty of people full of pomp and self importance. There are plenty also who don't need anyone taking them down a peg or two. For in fact the taking down of others certainly takes us down with them, to their place and their life.

We are not rising above the jokes if we don't play, we are not rising above anything when we realise the behaviour and collusion is damaging.

Bully for us and bully for April first. If we think we have foolery on our agenda we might look to our ego and our low esteem, for joking aside there is no upside long term to making others the but of our intellect or low wit. In fact the fuckwits charter requires institutional rollicking and put downs.

We need only look to our Parliament to recognise the ego driven maniacs who posture and make fun and ridicule of their protagonists. Standing and posturing as if in battle these mock warriors seek to make a point through their sharp wits and by dragging others into the gutter. Nasty little politicians with ego and low principles, the stuff of nightmares set their example most days of the year. Shock and awe, shocking news as the world moves through conflict driven times.

Foolery and sharp wits better put to other use as we look for relief from reality. We might examine what we want from our world. We might surmise it better to seek lighter moods through more productive behaviour which lightens us all and takes away the need to put down others to make our lives seem better.

Trust, the stuff of life and relationships, hard to acquire and given away without thought or consideration. So easily lost this hard won commodity for good living finds its currency beyond reach for many.

Our imperfect perfect world, where we all learn how to live, perfection in its evolution and making to the good our understanding of life, lets hope not too late. Or we have little time to live as we do as climate shifts our easy lives to more dangerous times for humanity. Nature the great cleanser and adaptor, better than we are and around long after the last human breath will be drawn.