Comments | roger_kuin: SOME NOTES ON IRONY AS A CULTURE

roger_kuin

SOME NOTES ON IRONY AS A CULTURE

Nov 20, 2012 17:42

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irony, marxism, politics, nihilism, religion, sixties, dada, surrealism

Comments 5

Hi Roger, it's Joel again ext_1507640 November 22 2012, 00:26:10 UTC

I can't write with your erudition and I happily toddle off to google many of your references every time I read you, for which I am grateful. But I still can't shake my conviction that what you're on about is bad faith and not irony proper. Yes, irony can shield people arguing in bad faith, but so can outright lies (Rummy, Cheney, even Romney) and half-truths (Bill Clinton), and let's not forget distracting reporters from the ugly truth. Some of your friends and my heroes speculated that the extravagance of Sir Philip's funeral may have been a ploy of that very kind ( ... )

Re: Hi Roger, it's Joel again roger_kuin November 22 2012, 20:36:39 UTC

Joel, what a great comment. Thank you. There is much in what you say. For right now, I'll just say that to me self-defeating cynicism is a tautology. I am intrigued by your statement that in a cynical world irony helps the sincere man stay civil: I'm simply not sure that that is true or possible. I hope I am a sincere man (and have occasionally been taken to task for same); I am not sure that I live in a cynical world: I always suspect that the world is far less cynical than we are led to suppose. Most people are actually pretty soft (what Brits call "soppy"): they love their dogs/cats, their kids and sometimes even their wives and neighbours, they try to make ends meet, they work for the local library in their spare time or go visit elderly rural folk, and look for presents for their nephews'/ nieces' birthdays. The Great Sadness of our time is that it is Politics that brings out their cynicism: the very activity that we/they should be proudest of, as being the one thing that keeps us from being the slaves of a Great Khan, the ( ... )

Re: Hi Roger, it's Joel again ext_1507640 December 4 2012, 04:31:23 UTC

Roger, I've now written two deeply thoughtful, moving, poignant, and all-round amazing replies on my kindle fire, which then didn't post. So I'm going to write something short right now and see...

Re: Hi Roger, it's Joel again ext_1507640 December 4 2012, 05:43:52 UTC

Ok, it *was* the Fire. So, first, yes this is much more fun than FB. And thanks for your advent post, too -- you and Sean are doing wonders for my spiritual life. Seriously ( ... )

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