{"id":3279,"date":"2009-12-28T19:51:24","date_gmt":"2009-12-29T00:51:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=3279"},"modified":"2009-12-28T19:51:24","modified_gmt":"2009-12-29T00:51:24","slug":"the-postironic-age","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=3279","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;The Post-Ironic Age&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/view.picapp.com\/default.aspx?term=Monty Python's Flying Circus&#038;iid=3349941\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cdn.picapp.com\/ftp\/Images\/4\/b\/7\/d\/The_Monty_Python_4260.jpg?resize=380%2C310\" width=\"380\" height=\"310\"  border=\"0\" alt=\"The Monty Python Gang\"\/><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"http:\/\/cdn.pis.picapp.com\/IamProd\/PicAppPIS\/JavaScript\/PisV4.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><strong>I think I ensured my immortality today, <\/strong>and I  want to publicize it here, just to make sure I get full credit.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTrzupr\u201d over at Threedonia, posted <a href=\"http:\/\/www.threedonia.com\/archives\/17884\">this interesting piece<\/a> today, about the irony of Disney building a \u201cTree of Life\u201d in its Animal Kingdom, to teach the sacred value of natural things, and actually building the object out of man-made materials, on the frame of an oil rig.<\/p>\n<p>I pointed out in comments that this was similar to using the most technology-heavy movie in history to preach the evils of technology. And then I wrote, \u201cWe have reached the Post-Ironic Age.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The more I think about it, the more I like that phrase. <!--more--><\/p>\n<p>People have been calling our present intellectual generation the \u201cpost-postmodern age,\u201d but that&#8217;s kind of convoluted, and doesn&#8217;t really communicate much.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Post-Ironic Age\u201d describes our times to a nicety, it seems to me. We&#8217;ve reached a point where statements are made by public officials and institutions which, only a couple decades ago, would have gotten the speaker laughed off the stage. But today such pronouncements are unremarkable.<\/p>\n<p>Statements such as \u201cThe system worked,\u201d when an explosives-carrying terrorist gets onto a Detroit-bound plane and actually begins detonation.<\/p>\n<p>Statements such as, \u201cAnd as horrific as this tragedy (the Fort Hood massacre) was, if our diversity becomes a casualty, I think that\u2019s worse.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Statements such as, \u201cWe need to spend our way out of this recession.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Statements such as, \u201cThere is nothing in the hacked e-mails that undermines the science upon which this decision is based.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I think we live in the first age in history in which such nonsense is possible on a worldwide scale. There have always been totalitarian societies where the subject of the emperor&#8217;s clothing deficit has been dangerous to bring up, but only today is such delusion acceptable everywhere. And not merely among the \u201cignorant masses,\u201d but most especially and vociferously among the intellectuals.<\/p>\n<p>This could only happen (it seems to me) in a culture where education has been almost entirely abstracted. Within the liberal arts and \u201csoft sciences\u201d (the hard sciences are different), it has become possible to receive an entire undergraduate and graduate education without ever learning how to actually do anything that works in the real world. Higher education has become almost entirely (there are, of course a few exceptions) a course of ideological indoctrination, totally separate from the lives people live on planet earth.<\/p>\n<p>And so I dub this generation \u201cThe Post-Ironic Age.\u201d You are welcome to use the term freely, so long as you give me credit.<\/p>\n<p>Oh, and buy my book.<\/p>\n<p><i>(Cross-posted at Mere Comments)<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I think I ensured my immortality today, and I want to publicize it here, just to make sure I get full credit. \u201cTrzupr\u201d over at Threedonia, posted this interesting piece today, about the irony of Disney building a \u201cTree of Life\u201d in its Animal Kingdom, to teach the sacred value of natural things, and actually &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=3279\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">&#8220;The Post-Ironic Age&#8221;<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3279"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3279\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}