The Greatest Irony of the Twentieth Century

blingblog ^ | 2 March 2011 | David Kielek

[notdownwidems]

Isn’t it ironic how the often-misused and abused term ironic is used in so many instances today, incorrectly, even out of all recognition of it’s true meaning? The remarking on a contradiction between an action or expression and it’s context is, I’ll warrant, as old as language itself. In years past is was not uncommon to hear people on television and radio label coincidences, or sarcasm, or satire, as irony. You hear it these days sometimes in sportscasters, although, now that the public’s acceptance for the term, noted incorrectly, has thankfully waned, it is not as common in the public media realm. Still, in casual conversation, I think it may be one of the most commonly misused terms in the English language.

As a rhetorical device, irony is often mistaken for coincidence, or sarcasm, or other rhetorical ways of wit. When the baseball player asserts that it is ‘ironic’ that he is being traded for another player, who is about equally proficient in statistics, he is more striking a backhanded indignity aimed at his hard-to-criticize bosses. Equally, in casual conversation, one’s assertion that it is ‘ironic’ that daughter Maggie was not elected student council president, when a boy was elected over her and the three other girls that were running, represents the sort of caustic conflation of coincidence that often passes for irony.

Irony, from the Greek, “dissimulation or sarcasm” arose originally in literary and rhetorical forms, and is, to quote the World English Dictionary, an ”indirect presentation of a contradiction between an action or expression and the context in which it occurs”. The manifestations of irony can be comic, as in Moliere’s The Miser, or dramatic, as in Thomas a Becket, or tragic, as in Romeo and Juliet; romantic irony, by contrast, refers to the effect of interrupting the story to tell the reader, listener or viewer that it is, indeed, just a story, and seems an oft-used device in modern entertainment, even to the point of being tiresome.

Although the main error committed by those who misuse the word irony in casual conversation is that the concept has come to us from forms designed to facilitate the organization and structuring of either language or literary material, and not primarily speech, there is a tradition of artful irony in speech. In the figure of speech, often noted as ‘Socratic irony’, lies “a means by which the pretended ignorance of a skillful questioner leads the person answering to expose his own ignorance”. Think Sherlock Holmes, or a wary jurist, Perry Mason, maybe (although I know I am dating myself) beckoning a reluctant witness to reveal information, in spite of his own concealment, by the logical and moral fortitude of the examiner. This effective rhetorical machine chews up defensive attempts to hide and obfuscate, and is a far cry from the lazy, imprecise use of the term in common usage today.

I have a real sense of irony, therefore, as I reveal what I consider the greatest irony of the twentieth century; a true irony, in that it has been used to structure the language, the popular culture, the socially-acceptable meme that has manifested in America since the end of World War II.

The twentieth-century was truly a destroyer of nations, and empires. In that the two cataclysmic wars of the century, and the multitude of smaller conflicts, built up upon an historical foundation of literary, bipolar conflicts: from the earliest, biblical struggles shown in the bible, in the epics and heavenly eschatologies of early societies: the familiar God vs. man, man vs. woman, Egyptian vs. Jew, Roman vs. Carthaginian, Muslim vs. Christian, Lutheran vs. Catholic, nationalist vs. monarchist, then finally, in the twentieth century, in the Cold War that also split the world along these familiar, dual lines: communist vs. patriot.

This dichotomy has had profound implications on the average person’s perception of history. As a practical matter, it dictates the acceptance of the reality of the struggle between good and evil, and our own, willing or unwilling, participation in it. Whether one accepts that good and evil are rational and natural, created from the cultural precepts of society, or faithfully accepts a Supreme Being in careful machination of all we do, this struggle, this constant battle to be good and decent, as we know God ordains that we do, is a primary factor in the average person’s perception of ordinary events. It is manifest in many ways, from the church, to nationalism, to law and order, to consumer awareness, to social clubs, and on and on. People have an intrinsic desire for decency and faith, a desire that is undermined and subverted by modern society at every turn.

Therefore, it is with great regret, and not a little anger, that I announce the greatest irony of the twentieth century: that all the blood and treasure that we expended to defeat the fascists and communists, only to find that they were right here among us, all the time. Regret I say because of the lost opportunities for our children, whose lives will be much diminished by our failure of action; and anger, at those who, far from acting in the best interests of our nation, have chosen to denigrate it at every turn, and work in harmony, if not in concert with, those who would harm us here in the greatest nation the world has ever known. For them, and they are legion, I need only quote the immortal Samuel Adams:

“ If ye love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude greater than the animating contest for freedom, go home from us in peace. We seek not your consul, nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains set lightly upon you; and may posterity forget ye were our countrymen."

[Huck]

Although the main error committed by those who misuse the word irony in casual conversation is that the concept has come to us from forms designed to facilitate the organization and structuring of either language or literary material, and not primarily speech, there is a tradition of artful irony in speech.

Fifty-one words is too many for one sentence. This writer may have a point; he needs an editor.

[EverOnward]

“ If ye love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude greater than the animating contest for freedom, go home from us in peace. We seek not your consul, nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains set lightly upon you; and may posterity forget ye were our countrymen.”

The privileged and pampered children of many who found refuge in our country have been educated to love and worship “social justice” not liberty.

[mmercier]

I get.

How Ironic.

[BerryDingle]

My wife quit ironing my clothes, I thought that was ironic.

[ClearCase_guy]

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

[bonnieblue4me]

I thought this was about steel.

[notdownwidems]

I’m sorry you couldn’t understand the sentence. It is a hard concept and I couldn’t seem to narrow it down.