ironypilled & modernity
~reflexions upon viewing a harsh piece of satire~
—remember when men were men and we hurt each other and everyone and ate meat, that ruled—
yes, i remember 80s comedians and 90s indie comix.
i most associate this bitter apotheosis with a segment of the older cohort of gen X, fatalists of a sort; the last generation to grow up with electric mass culture —tv, vhs, music, radio, film, mixtapes, DIY, zines; bad drugs, because where were you going to learn what was good, much less find it? and, critically, the last generation entering adulthood before the net, before the radical connection to information, afinity, identity, empowerment — i retain an essential optimism about htis world-change that i found at its beginning, in my context of the first generation to enter adulthood with a world at our fingertips, including all the bullshit in the world, so, so much more trivia and meretricious reward for spending one's time gorging on the bullshit... this is going to be one of those fun-to-edit posts, isn't it, how long is this sentence? not long enough, by gum.
i most associate this bitter apotheosis with a segment of the older cohort of gen X, fatalists of a sort; the last generation to grow up with electric mass culture —tv, vhs, music, radio, film, mixtapes, DIY, zines; bad drugs, because where were you going to learn what was good, much less find it? and, critically, the last generation entering adulthood before the net, before the radical connection to information, afinity, identity, empowerment — i retain an essential optimism about htis world-change that i found at its beginning, in my context of the first generation to enter adulthood with a world at our fingertips, including all the bullshit in the world, so, so much more trivia and meretricious reward for spending one's time gorging on the bullshit... this is going to be one of those fun-to-edit posts, isn't it, how long is this sentence? not long enough, by gum.
every generation of modernity has had its own style of ironypilled, it's a coping mechanism and like most such it inevitably tends toward a danger to oneself and others, because the pill is never enough to protect one's inner parts that need love and safety and meaning; when those things aren't available, traumapoisoned, alienated by living conditions, etc., we tend to deploy coping mechanisms more and more, extending them out to counter potential threats to our brutalized heart. mockery of life conditions and attitudes, whether vicious satire like this flyer, or punching down against whatever hated group, is hard to hold to just 'hey i made a thing and Fantagraphix published it', it's a verbal tool to be used whenever. analogous: drinking alone, isolating, almost anything one spends maximal time engaged with (see isolating): overexercising, bingeing news, gaming all night every night, religious and spiritual devotions ditto (everything else will follow if you're right with the cosmos, right? i've found this amazing new ritual and visualizations)..... i've tried a number of these, and been in the close orbit of people on others of them.
homework, exercise for the auctor: better definitions of coping mechanism from the disciplines that use it; i'm afraid it's orthodox psychotherapy, isn't it. well, we shall see.
وَٱللـّٰــــــهٌ آعْلَمٌ
Taha Cykr طـه
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