Oh-So Clever

Has our culture fallen into an age of irony, that tricky word which for our purposes means a contrived knowingness that arises out of real or feigned detachment? It has certainly permeated so much of our popular media. It powers most situational comedy these days. If so, might that phenomenon be the root of a more pervasive societal cost in the form of insincerity, estrangement, and the trivialization of the things that matter? Life as a Seinfeld episode.

Perhaps true wisdom has devolved into mere cleverness, the topic of our focus piece The Impotence Of Being Clever, to a point where cleverness has become more of a nuisance. Yet there is something about cleverness in the right hands -- say Jewish humor -- that reframes alienation as the higher ground from which to provide unique insight. The article's citation of Woody Allen is an inspiration for us to select a film for later viewing that showcases his themes of WASPish domestic boredom and cosmic insignificance. Can’t wait (not meant ironically).

Yet, it seems as though many of us have slipped into what’s described as a forced passivity, looking to escape oneself without joining community. Smug jokes and world-weary analysis, at least online, often replace active and thoughtful involvement – as if the mere forwarding of an incendiary opinion piece along with some snarky comment counts as engagement. We’re all oh-so above it all now as we relate to each other like “ungraspable flat ghosts.”

This ironic impulse has certainly been furthered by the postmodern notion that truth itself can be (is) a matter of perception, thereby clearing the way for a feedback loop between news and pop culture (as we discussed in MM 2/26/18 Postmodernism). Even language has become provisional where truth is something made, not found, in the exercise of power. 

Irony to Truth: Who’s my bitch.