The Downside Of Irony

To the Editor: 

Irony is such a wonderful word.

Major authors and filmmakers have admitted to the temptation to make deals with the devil if they would be blessed with the gift of true, unforced, irony in their work. Well-known novelists and talented playwrights have strived for years to achieve a review that boasts of the “subtle but brilliantly ironic quality so rare in contemporary writers...”

Rare, perhaps, in literature, but overabundant in the political landscape in America today. 

There are several different kinds of irony: Aside from synonyms like “reversal,” “satire,” and “sarcasm,” there is “Dramatic” irony, i.e., “irony inherent in speeches or a situation of a drama, which is understood by the audience, but not grasped by the characters in a play” (sound familiar?); also, “Socratic” irony, defined as “pretended ignorance in a discussion...” (recognize anyone?) While either of these would suffice to describe any number of players in Bush’s “Theater of the Absurd” administration, I would like to propose an even more fitting category — “Psychotic” irony — characterized by “a loss of contact with reality and an inability to think rationally” producing a condition whereby a person “often behaves inappropriately and is incapable of normal social functioning.” (bull’s-eye!)

May 2003 (about six weeks after we invaded Iraq): “Major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the Battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed….” said Bush on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln, below an enormous banner with “Mission Accomplished” in bold letters.

According to a recent Bill Moyers Journal transcript, “By this point — 140 US troops had died during the mission.” (This week, total reached 3,372!)

“It’s unknowable how long that conflict will last. It could be six days, six weeks. I doubt six months….” said Donald Rumsfeld in February 2003 (Over four years ago!)

One week after the invasion, the Deputy Defense Secretary said, while trying to pooh-pooh the costs of the war, “…the oil revenues of that country could bring between $50 and $100 billion over the course of the next two or three years…We’re dealing with a country that can really finance its own reconstruction, and relatively soon.”  (Paul Wolfowitz, a Bush nominee who became president of the World Bank in 2005!)

Continuing his report, Moyers stated, “…the war’s costs are soaring so fast the website costofwar.com uses a nonstop digital counter to keep up with the spending…projected to reach nearly one trillion dollars.” He included the following statistics from the National Priorities Project about what the money spent on the war so far could have provided America: 1.8 million new teachers; over 20 million college scholarships; health insurance for over 60 million children; nearly 4 million new housing units; and the incalculable price tag on the lost human lives…

…And today Bush picked a “White House War Czar” for Iraq!  Czar…if you want to have fun, look up the origins of this word, going back to Caesar, Kaiser, and Russian Tsar (as in Ivan the Terrible)….

Irony is such a wonderful word.

Michael Luzzi

Boggs Hill Road, Newtown                                               May 15, 2007