An Absence of Irony

My friend, “Decatur Dem” left this as a comment over at Neddie's:

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Irony.

I remember a conversation several years back with a surgeon I was working with, a Texan, arch-conservative, arch-fundamentalist, graduate of Texas Christian if I recall correctly. Somehow the Joe Walsh song "Life's Been Good to Me" came up:

I have a mansion, forget the price
Ain't never been there, they tell me it's nice
I live in hotels, tear out the walls
I have accountants pay for it all

They say I'm crazy but I have a good time
I'm just looking for clues at the scene of the crime
Life's been good to me so far

My Maserati does one-eighty-five
I lost my license, now I don't drive
I have a limo, ride in the back
I lock the doors in case I'm attacked...

"I can't stand that man," he said. "What kind of life is that?"

"Er... Irony? I think he's just being ironic."

"I don't believe in irony." (Said in a tone that invited no further discussion). "Where I come from, you say what you mean."

Stunned me right into silence, then changing the subject. Pretty clearly, he saw himself and all right-thinking Texans as straight shooters, and all irony users as duplicitous pantywaists. Even though the song is, actually, kinda conservative, since it points out the silliness of rock star hedonism, and does it so well, too.

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So, that explains it, doesn’t it? If you hate irony, if you don’t get irony, if you distrust people who employ the use of irony to get an idea across subtly, you vote for George Bush. Not an ironic bone in that man’s body. He says exactly what he means.

“You know, I could run for governor, but I'm basically a media creation. I've never done anything. I've worked for my dad. I worked in the oil business ..."

George W. Bush – 1989

“My father had all this political capital built up when he drove the Iraqis out of Kuwait and he wasted it. If I have a chance to invade, if I had that much capital, I'm not going to waste it. I'm going to get everything passed that I want to get passed and I'm going to have a successful presidency."

George W. Bush – 1999

“Listen, I'm just as shocked as you are that I'm sitting here talking about the presidency -- it's never been a part of my -- my life's ambition hasn't always been to be the president.”

George W. Bush – 2000


“It was amazing I won. I was running against peace and prosperity and incumbency.”

George W. Bush – 2001

“If I answer questions every time you ask one, expectations would be high. And as you know, I like to keep expectations low.”

George W. Bush – 2002

“I glance at the headlines just to kind of get a flavor for what's moving. I rarely read the stories, and get briefed by people who are ... probably read the news themselves.”

George W. Bush – 2003

“One of the most amazing events of my life, at least as the presidency, was to go to the NASCAR Race here at the Daytona 500.”

George W. Bush – 2004

“It's a myth to think I don't know what's going on. And it's a myth to think that I'm not aware that there is opinions that don't agree with mine. Because I'm fully aware of that. ...I see a lot of the news. Every morning I look at the newspaper I can tell you what the headlines are. I must confess, if I think the story is, like, not a fair appraisal, I'll move on.”

George W. Bush – 2005

“You know, it's amazing, when people say to me, well, he was just breaking the law. If I wanted to break the law, why was I briefin' Congress? Heh!”

George W. Bush – 2006

Source – Dubyaspeak.

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