Irony

 

Irony

Peter Schultz

 

            “It was ironic…. that Mary Norton (the first substantial woman in Congress) and William Dawson (the first substantial black in Congress) were both creations of corrupt political machines.” [Blood and Power: Organized Crime in Twentieth-Century America, 259]

 

Ironic too that “organized crime and corrupt urban machines formed the dark side of the New Deal.” [259] “Without the city bosses, especially Ed Kelly, Roosevelt would not have had a third term. The Democratic Convention of 1940 was held in Chicago for good reasons.” [260]

 

            Ironic too that the attacks of 9/11 led to the War on Terror, which was fought by warriors who practiced terrorism. Ironic too that when “stuff” is outlawed, outlaws are fortified, ala’ Prohibition. Ironic too that torturers see themselves as victims when those they are torturing resist them. Ironic too that victimizers look at themselves as victims, as did Americans looking at soldiers in Vietnam and afterwards.  

 

            The political is ironic. Hence, so is Plato’s Republic and Aristotle’s Politics, as well as Machiavelli’s The Prince and The Discourses. Their irony both hides and reveals or, it might be said, they reveal by hiding.