Every year, the circus sets up tent in town. I can always see those billowing red and yellow stripes from my rooftop while my mother always scolds me for sitting upon the shingled pinnacle. I usually ignore her and keep staring at the fabric that embodies the whole perverse and warped thing a circus is. So much goes on within its ring of desolation and disgusting antics that prove to anyone who looks what a society we are. Anyone who works in that tent of misery knows it as sure as I that we are a horrible people. There are aspects of the circus meant to amaze and others to amuse. No matter the purpose, they are all slaves to those red and yellow stripes.
The main attraction of this circus was the clowns. The clowns with their painted faces and ridiculous antics meant to make children giggle in glee, adults laugh out loud, and even the elderly chuckle quietly in joy. They are an embodiment of society and reality. A mockery and exaggeration of the corrupt people in society that is all too true and proves that by what makes people smile. Violence is greatly appreciated in that circle. A clown gets smacked for being stupid, for being smart, for being boastful, for being quiet, for being to loud and laughter reigns. Anguish and despair are magnified as one will mope and cry in a corner and snickers are too audible. Anger and rage is brought to the brim and acted out in beating and failure and the crowd finds it hilarious. Oh yes, it is so funny when you fail.
The circus is based around the idea of failure. Throughout all of the clownery, there is barely a circumstance where someone doesn't fail at what they were attempting to achieve. In the acrobatics that amaze and profound so many, the thought that tantalizes this sadistic community is "What if they fail?" What if they don't make that mortal catch between the jumps? What if they plummet down and slap hard against the ground? What if they just can't do it? And there are even people out there who, deep inside, are disappointed when they do catch that bar and go flying back safely through the air. There are many people who feel that slight annulment that their feral impulses for violence and gore are not satisfied, but it is so slight and lost in the back of their thoughts that they don't even notice and continue with their merriment.
Another way people can stay amused by the circus is because they refuse to accept how real and relevant it really is. They hide in their delusions that it can't be real and soak in the bliss of watching other people go through problems and their "lives" but laugh. There is no reality to the violence, so they think. But it is too real. Only showing what a people we are. Flawed and gruesome, laughing at the misery of others as they are forced to dance in the circle. Entertain us in their billowing red and yellow striped tent with bright lights and forced smiles. And we laugh. We all laugh.