Seeing Satire in everything

Satire is essentially making a parallel narrative or story that uses humor, irony, and/or exaggeration to expose elements in a reflection with our current society. -Or rather, our current personal perspective of society.

To see the satire in everything, I will paint a picture using small words that build up the idea of irony.

Oxymorons and Contradictions

We have phrases or expressions in culture that are antithetical to it’s ends, like the idea of using means against the ends. For instance, paving the road to hell with good intentions, by doing small evils justified for the greater good, is ironic.

Oxymorons and oxymoronic means a figure of speech in which apparently contradictory terms appear in conjunction. Some examples;

-Big shrimp (Shrimp implies small when used to describe non literal shrimps)
-open secret (Secrets disclosed aren’t secrets, open disclosure makes a secret no longer secret)
-Smart Idiot (Idiot contemporarily means a dumb person, to be a smart dumb person)
-Safe Bet (All bets are inherently risky, there is no guarantee or safeness in any bet)
-doing nothing (By doing you’re doing, and nothing is nothing. How can you do nothing?)

Things that contradict the other phrases in the same phrase or even sentence are oxymoronic. It has this layer of contradictory or self-defeating irony to it.

I would say that this applies to phrases like ‘Fighting for Peace’ or ‘Work will set you free’. Ironically if we fight for peace, we are creating war against peace for the idea of peace. If we work constantly against our will, you can’t immediately say that’s freedom or that it will set you free.

Ultimately the idea of contradictions is something we have to balance with, the duality of being and a direction with counter-directions.

If you subscribe to the notion that the universe works in cycles, reflections, and patterns, then you can see how the duality points to what is and isn’t and how it can be sometimes self-defeating or contradictory as if you’re going in a circle.

The Word points to what is the word, and what isn’t the word. Oxymoronic phrases are a sort of walking contradiction or hypocrisy that adds a spicy layer of satire or meta-analysis to something. Point being, you have to play with the hypocrisy if you want to transcend the duality of nature, instead of sticking to one side of duality, you can transcend duality by being in both sides and neither.

This is one of the reasons why Zen Koans are powerful and magical and at the same time meaningless.

Zen Koans

-are phrases that conceptualize things that can’t exist or can’t be but are often wrestled with back and forth in Zen Buddhism. These phrases can help the Buddhist reach a level of enlightenment or a state of Zen. (Zen Koans come from ancient Chinese Koans which are stories, dialogues, questions or statements about Chinese Buddhism)

Some examples of Zen Koans;

-If two hands clap to make a sound, What is the sound of one hand clapping?
-If you meet the Buddha, kill him.
-Without thinking of good or evil, show me your original face before your mother and father were born.

I mean, my analysis of zen koans are all over the place, and rightly so. In some ways, zen koans stretch the imagination and catapults people out of their meaning making seat and into the abyss or void of meaningless. It’s like our life is rigid and some inserted chaos is enough to jolt our understanding of life, or rather our misunderstandings of life.

In one way, it’s not made to make people think but rather the opposite, to make them shocked and not think, as if you’re inflicting mental pain to send them out of their own thoughts. The sort of zen state of mind in just being and not constantly thinking.

Very Wu Wei, or effortless non-action, if I do say so.

How we see contradiction in the world

Beyond Zen Koans, you can see the struggle and duality of contradictions, between the creator and the creation.

Between the artist and the art.

Between the writer and the written works.

I would go out to say that zen koans and oxymorons are inherent in all things. It’s just a matter of framing or context or perspective.

There’s a ladden element of satire and irony in the duality, the dance between what is comedic and what is tragic, two sides of the same coin, each side viewed through the perspective of time.

Anything you do or say has an element of duality and a partiality of contradiction inherent into it.

If you push too far in one direction, you end up self-defeating in the extremes. Being too radical in any direction, and you defeat the balance or purpose or harmony of what once was. There’s a reason why philosophers preach moderation and the golden mean philosophy.

In terms of life, people work for a job to pay bills to buy newer things to support them working for a job in a cycle of working, eating, and sleeping. This is a habit and a routine that we can enjoy, or accept as a part of natural suffering. The foolish or contradictory part is when someone tries to work themselves into freedom by working multiple jobs or starting another business. Essentially grinding their life away to not grind. Ironic.

Of course this isn’t always the case and it isn’t forever. You can learn to appreciate the elements of irony here, the idea of working harder for freedom. Essentially burdening our chains more to build the strength to break free. But if we forget the idea of freedom, people can end up in a trap of working more hours than a regular job and living much less.

Another instance, in working out, we build strength but feel injured or sore or weak in the process. In this duality we are intentionally tiring ourselves out and stretching muscles to build our muscles. It’s a contradiction. We tire ourselves to be less tired later, we weaken ourselves to strengthen ourselves later. -Again, if we take it to the extreme, we could injure ourselves and permanently inhibit our abilities or strength and be weak for much longer.

You can see how the pendulum swings, in a sort of cycle in life, that there is this pattern with a dual nature that ebbs and flows. So oxymorons and contradictions flow with their antithetical parts in a sort of dance. That’s just how life is.

If you see the balance here, and the point at which something goes too far radical and is self defeating, then you can spot the ‘satire’ inherent. This could better help you on how to navigate your own life.

Point is

The Yin and Yang, there is a white dot in the black spiral and a black dot in the white spiral.

Seeing the contradictions or irony in the duality of things, is like focusing on the dots in the spirals.

If you grow one dot to the extreme, you upset the balance of the dot with the spiral that is in, and you upset the balance between the spirals (to eachother).

The Dots in the spiral can grow to consume the spiral that it is in. After consuming the spiral, it becomes a a new spiral, with a new dot inside. It’s a dance.

When you can see the dot in duality, and when you can see duality in everything, then you can comfortably say that you have the ability to see the satire in everything.

I hope you use this knowledge to write funny jokes, I do love some good poetic irony.

Additionally, if you know how the extremes can sow disharmony or disrupt balance, then you’re also technically better equip to maintain golden balance or harmony or the middle mean. When you know what ‘not to do’, you have a better idea of what ‘to do’ too.

Epilogue

If you can learn to apply this vision of duality in what you do in life, you can see the measured approach, and know when things push too far into ridiculous territory. That perspective is of course subjective and changes with time and background and other factors.

When you see that everything has an element of self-defeat that can be amplified, then you can see how there is satire in everything.

And then your choice is to either push or pull the satire, to strengthen or weaken the satire, or just observe and do nothing as the universe plays out. There’s a duality between the duality, between observing two states, and the action or inaction between the two states. The duality between dualities.

Regardless, I hope I painted a decent enough picture on how to see satire in everything, essentially look at the dot of self defeat and irony inherent within everything.

Words Mean Things