{"id":17530,"date":"2016-12-21T12:35:36","date_gmt":"2016-12-21T16:35:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cosmicconvergence.org\/?p=17530"},"modified":"2016-12-21T13:35:24","modified_gmt":"2016-12-21T17:35:24","slug":"reinhold-niebuhr-irony-absurdity-and-tragedy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cosmicconvergence.org\/?p=17530","title":{"rendered":"Reinhold Niebuhr, Irony, Absurdity, and Tragedy"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By Joseph Zrnchik for 5th Estate Media <\/span><\/p>\n

Of the moral perils the United States faces, Reinhold Niebuhr wrote, \u201cThey are the perils which can be understood only if we realize the ironic tendencies of virtues to turn into vices when too complacently relied upon; and the power to become vexations if the wisdom which directs it is trusted too confidently.\u201d \u00a0He warned that, \u201cIdealism is too oblivious to the ironic perils to which human virtue, wisdom and power are subject.\u201d So is the position in which our government finds itself as it seeks to influence events in the Middle East and remain relevant by launching drone strikes as the forces of history render moot any such pretensions.<\/p>\n

With regard to the Progressives and Liberals violently attacking and brutalizing American citizens for exercising their voice in a truly democratic process, the Progressives ironically claim\u00a0the political process will\u00a0lead to violence since Trump was\u00a0elected to the presidency as they attacked those who elected him. \u00a0This is the very violence the political process is supposed to prevent by allowing peaceful change possible, especially a change that is not just a change in the name of the person holding the office, but in change that represents major shifts in policy that are so overdue that people who are usually tone deaf to many political debates suddenly have an understanding of important issues. \u00a0Accordingly, Niebuhr was concerned whether Americans were truly able to exhibit awareness for such irony such as when a very vocal minority becomes drowned out by the silent majority.<\/p>\n

This irony surely seems lost to those members of the media, who after having exhibited political bias while viewing themselves one step below that of true intellectuals, decided those who have exposed themselves as the unruly masses know better than the American people what policies should be enacted and by whom.\u00a0 The media and chattering political classes hold on to this belief even as they edit and redact the commission of violence from the peoples\u2019 perception when such an agenda serves their ends. \u00a0When their ends are served by calling attention to violence by the left, they provide legitimacy and momentum to those who victimize their political opposition and threaten democratic rule through rioting and lawlessness while providing the most ridiculous rationalities and apologetics for such behavior. \u00a0Yet, when the opposition of those who have appointed themselves Social Justice Warriors use\u00a0force even in self-defense, it is criticized and propagandized to \u00a0such an ideological level as to turn reason on its head. \u00a0This is the type of behavior you would expect from the\u00a0media in a Banana Republic.<\/p>\n

After WikiLeaks showed that there were hired violent instigators funded by the DNC to bring violence to Trump\u2019s rallies, this fact was deep-sixed by the mainstream media after having made the violence front page news when the onus was being placed on Trump and the meme was that it was Trump\u2019s rhetoric that was engendering violence.\u00a0 This lie became an on-message screed that was adhered to with the single-mindedness of a radical political party\u2019s ideology.\u00a0 Yet, the media sees no corruption in its acts and now shows its ugly head by providing proof that this repetition of lies by the MSM \u00a0is a form of thought control and a means to manufacture consent for the unaware and gullible.\u00a0 Once again we see the irony of how media is supposed to be a force for relevant facts of importance, but instead we get from them accusations of unflattering remarks about a woman when the news of other nations being laid to waste and nuclear war being imminent get \u201cBleachbitted\u201d from Americans\u2019 consciousness in the same manner thousands of emails were Bleachbitted from Hillary\u2019s servers and computers. \u00a0That Obama promised to be the most transparent president while prosecuting the most whistleblowers of any president in the history of the republic shows just how badly this situation drips with hypocrisy and irony, shows the media as\u00a0incapable of telling the truth, and proves just how biased the media is by relegating important facts to the circular file while taking drivel and making it the primary topic of concern.<\/p>\n

After the media having made fools of themselves on election day, we hear less than a week after the election that the transition of administrations is a chaotic disaster as the media accuses Trump of not being transparent because he decided he would not allow media to tag along during his meeting with Obama. \u00a0Conversely, it\u00a0remained\u00a0quiet about Hillary setting up a \u201chomebrewed\u201d email server and then destroying hundreds of thousands of emails to hide her entire tenure as Secretary of State. \u00a0It failed to mention Obama\u2019s crusade on whistleblowers and complained more about Hillary\u2019s lies being exposed that it did about her rigging the election and cheating Bernie Sanders. \u00a0Is the media really that\u00a0blind to these ironies and hypocrisies? \u00a0The media\u2019s opinion-makers like Colbert, John Oliver, Trevor Noah, Seth Meyers and other comedians who have no concern for non-college white middle-class America, show disdain for that\u00a0population\u2019s concerns and aspirations as they\u00a0bombard us 24\/7 with anti-Trump propaganda and expose themselves as globalists who have no love for those who oppose their CFR agenda or even more simply just want a job and middle class lifestyle. \u00a0As long as the talking\u00a0heads are wealthy, the middle class can wither and die and all we will ever get from them is jokes. \u00a0How is it that someone becomes branded a \u201cwhite nationalist\u201d for participating in country\u2019s political process to ensure the government provides border security and makes sound economic decisions that protect a nation\u2019s wealth and jobs while providing opportunities to its citizens?<\/p>\n

Regarding the alleged hacks that the DNC and Clinton have lied about in an anti-democratic attempt to delegitimize Trump\u2019s election, operatives with definite political agendas working inside various 3-letter agencies have lamely attempted to make out Trump as a Manchurian\u00a0Candidate<\/em>. \u00a0As the left and neocon right try to claim foreign influence had spoiled the election, these same people were silent concerning the influence that the Zionist lobby has\u00a0had on American politics. \u00a0Israel, through various neocon think tanks populated by hundreds of dual citizenship Israeli-Americans, in conjunction with numerous Christian Zionist groups\u00a0that receive funding from organizations and individuals who represent Israeli interests, dominate the American political process and media culture in which information is skewed and distorted, hidden and ignored, or magnified and propagandized\u00a0all based on creating a single narrative from across the entire media and political establishment. \u00a0All of it is pro-Israeli, pro-Zionist, pro-banking, pro-Wall Street, pro-militarism, pro-welfare, pro-globalism and pro-surveillance.<\/p>\n

What needs to be asked by critical thinker is: \u00a0How is it the media and political establishment are even taken serously anymore? \u00a0It has become apparent who the mainstream media works for and what agenda they are supporting.\u00a0 The ironic thing is that it was the DNC lies and violence ended up discrediting both the media and Clinton as Americans knew all of this was paid theatrics because no 300-pound African-American Trump supporter was going to beat up a 150-pound liberal white guy protesting at a Trump rally.\u00a0 The more the media went after Trump, the more people tuned out. \u00a0Now the media is frantic in its attempts to discredit the Trump administration though all them are supposed to be unbiased professionals. \u00a0Even Glenn Greenwald, a hardline progressive, complained about the media dog-piling on Trump and ignoring that a progressive political agenda was sacrified for a corrupt establishment politician. \u00a0\u00a0The mainstream media now tries to compensate for its failure at manipulating Americans by spewing yet more anti-Trump propaganda.<\/p>\n

The media coverage continues to be a farce as\u00a0a battle rages between the average American and the forces of propaganda and\u00a0disinformation.\u00a0 It was at this point that the media coverage ceased being a joke and progressed to becoming an institution caught in irony and finally\u00a0rendering itself pathetic and irrelevant. I predict that the mainstream media will find it has done irreparable damage to itself and its influence will be soon cut in half with new media outlets growing rapidly. \u00a0If I were Trump, I would cut much of the MSM\u2019s press credentials and give them to new media outlets that can be trusted to be unbiased or are partisans for Trump. \u00a0Why let your enemies take false messages to the people? \u00a0Once again we see the MSM be a victim to irony as it promotes the screed of \u201cFake News\u201d. \u00a0The MSM has not only manufactured false news, but also mass-produced it. \u00a0The CIA brags that it no longer needs to control reported because it controls editors. \u00a0It mocks journalists by making the now-famous CIA pronouncement that a good reporter can be had for less than a good call girl. \u00a0As the MSM relies on CIA operatives and government officials to get its story line, criticism, objectivity and skepticism have all been abandoned. This obsequiousness of the MSM to the establishment has given rise to a vibrant alternative media that has and will, as RT pronounces, \u201cQuestion Everything\u201d. \u00a0Now the MSM has to rely on fake websites like PropOrNot to create fake news to hide its bias and to discredit true journalism and alternative media.<\/p>\n

With regard to those college-educated progressives and non-college educated progressive thugs and their use of violence paid for by groups controlled by oligarch George Soros to achieve what they believe is social justice, and with regard to whether one can identify the irony in such a situation, Niebuhr wrote, \u201cOne must answer that question by insisting that there are elements in current history so obviously ironic that they must be patent to any observer who fulfills the conditions required for the detection of irony.\u201d\u00a0 The thing that makes such a situation especially ironic is the failure of those involved to discern their behavior and the irony it engenders.\u00a0 What scares me is that while I, a well-read individual of average intellect, sees this, the people so refined in the realm of political thought and analysis, with expert presentation skills and polished oratory, find neither the interest, sense of duty or desire for fairness to cover these important issues that have allowed the media to blatantly and obviously cross the Rubicon into the realm of political action.\u00a0 It seems we are in need of getting back to a time when the media was required\u00a0to provide time for dissenting opinions. \u00a0But, that was a time when media had no opinion and reported both sides of a controversy.<\/p>\n

As Obama and Clinton wanted to make us safe by waging more war, protect our rights by creating the NSA spy operations, ensure prosperity by giving Wall Street the right to steal, have police protect our rights by giving them the authority to brutalize and even kill without accountability, protect our liberties by enacting the PATRIOT Act, the NDAA, the DHS and the NSA, all of which strangle our liberties as the FBI fabricates terrorist plots and allows those who were supposed to protect American secrets the tacit authorization to allow intelligence to be hacked, stolen, hidden and destroyed to obscure the fact that the State Department was handing out uranium to Russian interests, weapons to the Saudis to slaughter tribal civilians, billions of dollars to Israel to slaughter and steal Palestinian land as the US provided weapons and other aid to ISIS and al Nusra, Niebhur wrote, \u201cThese ironic contrasts and incongruities, though obvious, are not always observed because the irony cannot be directly experienced.\u00a0 The knowledge of it depends upon an observer who is not so hostile to the victim of irony as to deny the element of virtue which must constitute a part of the ironic situation; nor yet so sympathetic as to discount the weakness, the vanity, and the pretension which constitute another element.\u00a0 Since the participant in an ironic situation cannot, unless he be very self-critical, fulfill this later condition, the knowledge of irony is usually reserved for the observers rather than the participants.\u00a0 If participants in an ironic situation become conscious of the vanities and illusions which makes an ironic situation more than merely comic, they would tend to abate the pretensions and dissolve the irony.\u201d\u00a0 Neibuhr bristled at the fact that many times people are even fully aware of the irony in which they find themselves when in a group, and yet are unable to extricate themselves from such a situation either individually or collectively.\u00a0 Can any better explanation be given regarding Bush\u2019s illegal war in Iraq, Obama\u2019s expansion of the war in Afghanistan, the US\u2019 supporting the Saudis in Yemen, Hillary\u2019s destruction of Libya and Syria, or the MSM bringing up the issue of fake news?<\/p>\n

Reinhold Niebuhr went on to write that, \u201cIronic contrast and incongruity have an element of comic in them insofar as they exhibit absurd juxtapositions of strength and weakness of wisdom through foolishness or foolishness as the fruit of wisdom, of guilt arising from pretensions of innocency or innocency hiding behind extensible guilt. Yet contrasts are ironic only if they are not merely absurd, but also have hidden meaning.\u00a0 They must elicit not merely laughter, but a knowing smile.\u00a0 The hidden meaning is supplied by the fact that the juxtapositions and contrasts are not merely fortuitous. They are related to each other by some foible of the person who is involved in both.\u00a0 The powerful person who is proved to be really weak is involved in an ironic contrast only if his weakness is due to some pretension of strength.\u00a0 If pride cometh before the fall, the fall is ironic only if pride contributed to it.\u201d How ironic it is that the lies Hillary worked so hard to keep from the American people became manifest. \u00a0But, even if Russia did hack, why is it Americans should not be happy they were told the truth by lies being exposed? \u00a0What value is free will if you support the right of others to deceive you?<\/p>\n

We now see that there are many ironies that occur as a result of being a superpower and economic hegemon.\u00a0 We see that in our drive for more power we have become less secure.\u00a0 We see that by seeking economic opportunity we have created toxic derivatives that destroy wealth.\u00a0 We see that by seeking comparative advantage for increased profitability, we have exported American jobs. \u00a0We see that by attempting to spread democracy we have supported dictators. \u00a0We see that we have waged unspeakably brutal wars as we claim we are promoting peace.<\/p>\n

With regard to the media becoming pathetic, Niebuhr wrote, \u201cIf virtue becomes a vice through some hidden defect in the virtue; if strength becomes weakness because of the vanity to which strength may prompt the mighty man or nation; if security is transmuted into insecurity because too much reliance is placed upon it; if wisdom becomes folly because it does not know its own limits -in all such cases the situation is ironic. The ironic situation is distinguished from the pathetic one by the fact that the person involved in it bears some responsibility for it. It is differentiated from tragedy by the fact that the responsibility is related to an unconscious weakness rather than to a conscious resolution. While a pathetic or tragic situation is not dissolved when a person becomes conscious of his involvement in it, \u00a0an ironic situation must dissolve, if men or nations are made aware of their complicity in it.\u00a0Such awareness involves some realization of hidden vanity or pretension by which the comedy is turned into irony. \u00a0This realization either must lead to an abatement of the pretension,\u00a0 which means contrition, or it leads to a desperate accentuation of the vanities to the point where irony turns into pure evil.\u201d \u00a0Clinton is intelligent enough to know that her pretensions have gone far beyond ironic and engender the type of evil that those who opposed her felt intuitively and viscerally. \u00a0What may be ironic regarding Hillary\u2019s actions leads to a pathetic situation for those in the military she seeks to fight her wars and those who are subject to the loss of opportunity because we have become our own worst enemy on the world stage.<\/p>\n

Niebuhr goes on to write in the next paragraph, \u201cOur modern liberal culture, of which American civilization is such an unalloyed exemplar, is involved in many ironic refutations of its original pretense of virtue, wisdom, and power.\u201d\u00a0 When you consider that all Americans view their nation as a force for good while the rest of the world views the US as an hypocritical, arrogant, violent threat whose self-deception is maintained through a media disinformation campaign directed against the American people, we begin to see the irony that begins to turn to pathetic farce as we then begin to use pretensions that lead to mass violence on an industrial scale and finally to tragedy. \u00a0What is plain is that many of the things our government does supposedly in our name would never have been supported by the American people if they knew the truth, nor would the reactions for the unintended consequences that resulted from the false paradigms that were created. \u00a0LIes can only be maintained through increasingly greater amounts of money used for bribery and violence.<\/p>\n

While it would be quite impossible to list all the situations in which we have found our military, political, financial, justice, media and national security establishments engaged in comical, farcical, ironic, pathetic and tragic acts with their accompanied consequences, our inability to stop and examine and reset has placed our nation on autopilot as we head towards cataclysm.\u00a0 Future generations will wonder how we could have been so blind. They will be amazed at the missed opportunities to lead humanity towards a better world and will have a case study in\u00a0how the things we hold on to so greedily end up being ripped from our grasp as we become our own worst enemy and the maker of our undoing. \u00a0Some of Trump\u2019s work will be very easy as blatant abuses have long begged for redress. And, tet\u2019s hope Trump will lend and ear to those who value liberty.<\/p>\n

Niebuhr has warned that our dreams of managing history, dreams born out of a peculiar combination of arrogance, hypocrisy and self-delusion, pose a large and potentially mortal threat to the United States.\u00a0 This idea can almost be summed up in two words \u00a0\u2013Middle East.\u00a0 Niebuhr warned that even the most powerful nations can not manage their own destiny, and yet we place on full display arrogance itself as we try to manage the destiny of other nations\u00a0while ignoring the vast forces of history that are beyond our ability to recognize, much less control, as the desires, hopes, wills,\u00a0ambitions ideals and beliefs that are operative outside of what we deem for or against our interests make us labor in a vain attempt to stem the tide of history.<\/p>\n

They say life is a tragedy to those who feel and a comedy to those who think.\u00a0 This is because the grand stage of life allows a platform for human endeavor in which to play out in front of a captive audience.\u00a0 Unfortunately, there is no other game in town and we often find ourselves relegated to that role of movie extras and audience members and will remain so until we make ourselves aware of the fact that contradictions, ironies, absurdities, oxymorons and paradoxes are very real things, all made worse when impacted by the frailties of human ego with unforeseen and unintended consequences that involve events we know and can\u2019t change, things we know and consciously won\u2019t change, and things we never see coming.<\/p>\n

History has a way of allowing major events to sneak up on you when current events are camouflaged by self-deception.\u00a0 So, let the next act begin and let\u2019s see where the chips fall and what we will next see and learn for good or for ill in the endeavor of human advancement or entropy.\u00a0 As we become self-aware as a nation, it is with great hope that I wish such awareness leads to a national resilience that will guide our leaders through the day-to-day minefield of contemporary politics.\u00a0 For it is in understanding timeless moral truth we find a present clarity that tells us,\u00a0\u201cThe thing that hath been, it\u00a0is that\u00a0which shall be; and that which is done\u00a0is\u00a0that which shall be done: and\u00a0there is\u00a0no new\u00a0thing\u00a0under the sun.\u201d<\/em>Ecclesiastes 1:9<\/em><\/p>\n

While I hope this brief article has opened your eyes to considerations that are often lost in translation when thoughts become action. \u00a0I hope that as issues for which we remain completely unaware turn\u00a0ironic and become as unassuming as water is to a fish that swims in it, we have leaders we can bring from outside the fish bowl who will bring change. \u00a0Think of all the lessons the political establish can learn from the recent election. \u00a0We have learned that progressivism trumps (no pun intended) a corrupt establishment\u00a0orthodoxy and populism and change trumps the status quo. \u00a0I hold little faith that awareness of present events will motivate the mass of humanity to stop working against its interests as existence itself becomes the existential equivalent of the economic principle that explains the \u201ctragedy of the commons\u201d as the elite have their minions battle for and deplete resources.<\/p>\n

There is much more Reinhold Niebuhr had to say that demands a consideration that ought to result in corrective action, and so I beg you to listen to retired COL Andrew Bacevich\u2019s speech whose impressive credentials ought to be considered when he suggests that there is a critical need for a \u201cNiebuhrian revival\u201d in American foreign policy.\u00a0 His incredible speech, one that I find to be the best and most powerful I have ever heard, has a Youtube link located at the bottom of this article.\u00a0 Andrew Bacevich\u2019s credentials are as follows:\u00a0\u00a0American\u00a0historian\u00a0specializing in\u00a0international relations,\u00a0security studies,\u00a0American foreign policy, and\u00a0American diplomatic\u00a0and\u00a0military history. He is a Professor Emeritus of International Relations and History at the\u00a0Boston University\u00a0Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies. He is also a retired career officer in the\u00a0Armor Branch\u00a0of the\u00a0United States Army, retiring with the rank of\u00a0Colonel. He is a former director of Boston University\u2019s Center for International Relations (from 1998 to 2005), now part of the\u00a0Pardee School of Global\u00a0Studies.<\/em><\/p>\n