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The death of the ironist

By Richard Stanton - posted Monday, 8 August 2011


In the past year or so the Australian Labor Party and the Greens have made it more difficult to comprehend which of these polar opposites they support, especially as the Labor Party now appears to be unsure whether it is in the relationship or out.

The Greens attempt to decouple the polarities by being selective, depending upon the situation.

Situational variables exist in any political strategy but it is unlikely that strategists will argue that they are at once disengaged and involved; critical and credulous, or dispassionate and emotional.

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The Greens who front the media would have us believe they are dispassionate and critical of Labor's proposed carbon tax but their party position appears to be emotional and credulous.

The prime minister, Julia Gillard, is attempting a party mix; to be seen to be both disengaged (out of sight one day) and involved (wandering the countryside the next); dispassionate (carbon tax) and emotional (clean energy future).

One of the basic elements of irony, according to Grice, is the ability of a speaker or writer to proclaim a known error – an initial absurdity that betrays an ignorance or foolishness that is so incredible the odds are high they know they are being ironic.

Politicians try at all costs to avoid looking foolish or absurd. When they do, they usually have friendly news media to spin the foolishness so that it looks less so.

For the average citizen the foolishness and absurdity of some of the issues and events of the past few weeks defy the media spin.

We punters, as politicians like to call us, (thinking they are being humorous), are attached directly to the non-funny tangible things that make up our non-ironic ordinary lives; food, clothing and shelter as basic entitlements.

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So the space being taken up by politicians calling for investigations into the media and by the left metro media accusing the right metro media of inciting racial hatred could be put to better use.

Australians, as the prime minister has taken to calling us, are traditionally a tolerant mob.

We give our politicians and media plenty of room to spruik, to waffle, to jibber. While they are getting on with the job of governing and governing well we will tolerate a lot.

But, I would argue, we are now at the end of our tether.

The tolerance of the majority, who diligently separate the recyclables, turn of the light when not in a room and open the windows in summer rather than cranking the air-conditioning, is gone.

When tolerance is diminished so too is irony. When the left are right, they like to take the credit. When they're wrong, they like to blame everyone else. Wonder if they see the irony in that?

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About the Author

Richard Stanton is a political communication writer and media critic. His most recent book is Do What They Like: The Media In The Australian Election Campaign 2010.

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Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

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