Sarcasm is a staple of our generation.
“That’s just perfect” or…”This is fan-tastic.”
Someone saw this blog, and I was greeted with a cutting remark: “boy, I wish I had that kind of time.”
Well, maybe. We don’t have a TV in our house, you’d be surprised by what kind of hours are freed up by not watching “big brother XXXII” or “So you think America’s got dancing talent.” What’s gonna leave a bigger legacy? Writing down information about myself/what I was thinking…
…or watching Simon Cowell…cut up someone hopeful….singer?
That too can become sarcastic…We as people are mismatchers by nature, and when someone does something cool or good or nifty, most people try to defend themselves, rather than appreciate other people’s talent/ability. Everything from, “Hey , if all I had to do was go to class, I’d be a nerd, too,” to “Well, who want to ace shop class.”
Sarcasm comes from our own insecurity.
Sarcasm comes from our need to fit in–to be ourselves, and to reject ideas that make us uncomfortable.
The Bible famously says that the “darkness hates the light,” and I think that our culture has wired our minds to hate anything that is better than what we have, anything that is more than what we can do, and to justify our own ideas. It’s never comfortable to think that someone is better than you, smarter than you, more unique than you. So we cut them up with sarcasm…because it’s simple, and it lets us off the hook..
Sarcasm comes from a word that means to tear the flesh.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarcasm
Think about that–why be cutting or abrasive. I’m not talking about not being accountable, and I’m not saying it is an invalid tool to make a poitn. But–if you ask people about me, 70% of the people who know me well would say I’m sarcastic…
…does that build trust?
….does that build love?
…would you rather be clever, or loving?
….cool, or kind?
I don’t know anymore. Maybe none of this is mutually exclusive–maybe it’s actually effective to communicate in the lingua franca of our generation. Maybe we should amp up the sarcasm, and abandoning being sarcastic will sorely blunt my effectiveness…
….but I don’t think so.
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ChristopherK 12.01.08 at 11:44 am
chris your all over it, very well put, and go ahead and thrown in the part about how sarcasm is used to intentionally make another person/people feel a certain way. based from our insecurities, we deliberately use this tool to control others, intentionally indirect and pointed, it doesn’t matter if you “get” the joke or not, your always able to feel that uncomfortable feeling that some balless jackass sent, you get the message, and you don’t have to get the punch line. it’s a form of controlling your environment, which is okay by me, what isn’t okay is when the environment is being polluted on purpose.
ChristopherK