Friday, March 21, 2003
I rue the day irony went mainstream.
First, Freedom Toast. Now, a group of, in their own formatting, US PATROITS want to ship the Statue of Liberty back to France. Link from Memepool.
A worthy cause, even despite the prohibitive postage. After all, the United States possesses a unique culture, painstakingly derived over the course of several decades, and only very slightly derived from that funky European country, with its Socialist leaning and nonsensical language. How admirable (and possible!) to rip those insidious tendrils of French culture out from our national psyche! Why....
...hm. Heh heh. Actually, now that I look at it more closely, this can't be for real. I mean, look at that ship! And they want to replace the SOL with a big sculpture of Ronald Reagan? They even wrote out Freedom Fries in multicolor allcaps, they're either colossal idgits or people brilliantly pretending to be colossal idgits. And look very carefully at the bottom-most photo on their Hall of Patriots page. No, they've gotta be pulling my leg.
Except that it's not really obvious it's a work of satire. I know, oooh you'd better believe I know, that there are people out there who'd take this seriously, and even rally behind it. If it is a big joke, it's one that fills all the purposes against which the joke rails. Who is being laughed at here, people trying to expel France from U.S. culture (in other words, mindless nationalists), people ranting against people trying to expel France from U.S. culture (that is to say, maybe-almost-me), people writing about people ranting against people trying to expel France from U.S. culture (e.g. possibly-actual-me), or people who love people and so are the happiest people in the world (dwindling number)?
Really, how much sarcasm is too much?
