For Common Things: Irony, Trust and Commitment in America Today

I’ve been thinking and reading a lot about irony, its pervasive effect on the way we think and communicate, and what the implications of that are for our personal, social, and political prospects. This isn’t incredibly sophisticated or original from a theory or analysis standpoint, but what it’s saying is nonetheless important and worth saying, especially on the part of someone of my own generation who has grown up in an irony-saturated society. Seems like a good bridge between Foster Wallace’s worries about irony and culture in E Unibus Pluram and Putnam’s worries about the decline of civic participation in Bowling Alone.

Earnest and almost kind of pushy, with a dash of self-righteousness. This book made me hate irony and then, slowly, I began to hate Mr. Purdy for making me hate irony. Now, older and wiser (I read the book back in 2000), I remember only that this book introduced me to The Captive Mind, by Czeslaw Milosz. Mr. Milosz's novel book is required reading for anyone who seeks to understand communism (outside of the Reagan-era Evil-Empire propoganda).