comment on irony

Irony, it seems, was a characteristic of the century gone by. In a world where little is certain, and where the human condition is, at best, vulnerable to error, temptation and even collapse, one begins to expect things to turn out different. We begin to look for and even expect our heroes to fail; and, hopefully, expect the fallen to rise to moments of grandeur.

 

Unfortunately, irony is all too seldom recognized as a two-ended, two-edged blade that slices the wielder as well as the caught. We delight in exposing the foibles and failures of others, but all too often forget how capable we could be of similar things. We mock those who collapse but discount the pride and schadenfreude that fuel the mockery. And our own hypocrisy abounds--perhaps never more acutely than when we're identifying hypocrisy in others.

 

Can we reach a post-ironic age? And what might await us there? Perhaps, what really matters is that, like the conclusion of Stephen Vincent Benet's "By the Waters of Babylon," we make a beginning...

 

not against but towards....

Done