Sarcasm is a form of pessimism. Sarcasm is using biting humor, satirical wit, and irony to prove a point. Sarcasm implies intelligence: it requires intelligence to wield it well...but it is also very harmful.
High School was an interesting experience. My high school was situated in a very affluent area. Because of this, most of the students came from intelligent, middle-class families...and it showed. Our backgrounds created interesting school dynamics and, unfortunately, a large number of cliques. It was difficult to stand out through good grades alone, so people were forced to find identity in numbers. Though I had friends in a number of these groups, the people I felt the most affinity for were the fringe intelligentsia.
The strange thing was--with a few exceptions--most of my close friends were socially adept when they chose to be; and yet most of them chose not to. They maintained their identities through aloofness. Among my closest friends, we became very cynical of high school and the world in general. It made us feel good to laugh at things and our conversations were usually witty and full of diatribes.
I remember once when I went on a Church camping trip and my older sister, Marci (whom I really looked up to in high school), met this guy from the next neighborhood over and she spent the night on a hillside talking to him. The next day she relayed some of the conversation to me, telling me that the guy was really interesting, intelligent and funny, and yet ... she told him that he was way too sarcastic. She told him that sarcasm was, by nature, very pessimistic and negative--and that you can't be sarcastic and still view the world in a positive light. Her comment struck me and stuck with me.
Looking at my life now and comparing myself to how I was then, I'm more of a wide-eyed optimist in some ways. But that's ok. I agree with what Marci said: I believe that, if you're always looking for something to make fun of, you can never see the good in things. That goes for sarcasm, cynicism, or any other form of pessimism. I once told Dan that every cynic, at heart, is a Romantic. I don't know if that's true...but it was true in my case.
7 years ago
5 comments:
someone said that "sarcasm is the protest and protection of the weak." i think that is mostly true, but then there's the sarcasm that just whips events into place and throws people on their asses....the sarcasm not meant to hurt individuals but regimes.... i enjoy that kind.... like Maureen Dowd's (from the NY times) sense of humor.
My conversations still are witty and full of diatribes ... hmmm!
While a lil' bit o' sarcasm never hurt anybody, I would posit that an overall sarcastic, cynical outlook is negative. I know this because lately I've felt both a little too sarcastic and too cynical.
It seems like sarcasm can get to be a crutch, a way of saying what you feel without owning it, 'cause if anyone calls you on it, you can just pass it off as "just a joke". The creepy thing is that a pervasive sarcastic 'tude seems to result in an ambivalent reaction to everything: nothing is sacred, everything is a target. While one possesses no beliefs of one's own, one still feels entitled to attack others' beliefs. Or maybe that's a separate topic of debate.
Coincidentally, one time in an online game I noticed a couple of guys having a conversation about sarcasm, one fellow taking the position that it is the lowest, stupidest form of sarcasm. Of course I took up the gauntlet in defense of sarcasm, and my accomplice and I had a good time of it. At one point, the anti-sarcast whined, "Can't we change the subject?"--ever the indication of someone losing the argument--and I rejoined, "Can there be a better subject than sarcasm?" The other defender of the faith was the only one who got that. (Although, conveying emotion through cheesy online chat mechanisms is definitely another topic in itself.)
Sarcasm and irony really dobelong to the more cerebral side of humor (as opposed to Scary Movie 3)I suppose they can be catalytic as well--though I tend to think of satire more in that light.
I guess my target should have been more on cynicism...but I feel that sarcasm is a child of cynicism, and it definitely hurts when sarcasm is used against you. It's just so disdainful.
On a separate note: I almost typed in the names of the people I considered "fringe intelligentsia" but I wasn't sure if it would offend people to be included in such a motley crew or to not be...But then I realized that I have a reading audience of three people and that Dan already knows I consider him in that crowd, so what's the harm?
Dan Dorman and Dave Dorman, Dan Ballard, Jeremy Stoddart, Alyson Carter, Shari Bauer, Allison Eynon, Ashley (short girl), Kris Torbinson, Corbin Frost, Keith Leonard and (surprise, surprise) Heidi Dillon.
I like how I misspelled "do belong" RIGHT before cerebral....
sigh
...the story of my life.
I appreciate--and I'm sure Dave does, too--that we are referred to as separate entities rather than the conglomerate "Dan and Dave Dorman".
You're the man, Phee. I've always said so.
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