By Morf Morford
Tacoma Daily Index
In the final months of the Trump Administration, a short phrase echoed across the internet; “irony is dead”.
Irony, the succinct statement or analogy of near-pure contradiction, certainly could not be outdone by a reality TV host “acting” as president (though I think critics and supporters alike would agree that he never “got” the “acting presidential” idea). His multiple divorces and scandal only endeared him more to his religious supporters and defenders, and his multiple fraud lawsuits and bankruptcies (and seemingly endless criminal investigations) only deepened his support among the business community. And of course, on his final day in office, again, completely consistent with his character, had a vaccine for a virus he consistently mocked as a fraud – and which he himself had.
Yes, in the waning days of 2020, irony had been out maneuvered by increasingly absurd and contradictory reality.
But then came 2021.
Before 2021 came, of course, we had the 2020 election. And the immediate, well-organized objection to its results.
I think we all knew, since “the election is rigged” was President Trump’s continual refrain that, if he lost, or if the election were even close, he would bring back his favorite line. Which, of course, is exactly what he did.
He paired it with another memorable line – “Stop the steal.” Besides the near-infantile grammar, there was something oddly familiar about that phrase.
Several statewide election seasons ago, I was driving outside of Ellensburg and saw a huge billboard with the statement “Don’t let Seattle steal this election!”
Greater Seattle, then, as now, holds about one third of the voters of our state.
And then, as now, “steal” is code for “out-vote”.
The word “stop” is of course, another word for cancel. Which brings us to the current phrase de jour; cancel culture.
Where were the critics and apostles of “cancel culture” several months ago when the “Stop the steal” movement emerged? Didn’t they want to save us from a free and fair election being “cancelled”?
And more recently, where were these defenders of decorum and tradition on January 6th, when armed crowds besieged our nation’s capitol building with the deliberate intent to disrupt the results of a confirmed and verified election and the orderly transition of power?
Most of them were in fact, hoping, if not acting, to “cancel” the results of the 2020 election.
In other words, irony is back.
One of the many ironies of the “cancel culture” movement is that it came in the wake of two defining national movements – one natural and one human.
The human movement is COVID, spread by humans. The death toll, in early 2021, quickly passed 500,000 on a national basis. Death, of course, is the ultimate “cancel”.
Where were the false prophets of doom who would warn us of lives, careers and relationships being “canceled” by disease when we needed them?
Many of them, as you might recall, were speaking and working in opposition to basic health protocols, not in defense of the basic health needs of their constituents.
Denying hospitalizations and fatalities and promoting absurd conspiracy schemes regarding vaccines had become a never-failing campaign strategy that they could not leave behind.
Reality still, for some at least, had out-ironied irony.
But then the hand-wringing about cancel culture began.
But nature, like common sense, was not on the side of the cancel culture campaign.
The cancel culture movement took dominant shape in March – the month of spring.
What could contradict cancel culture more than the demise of winter and the arrival of spring with its flowers and birdsongs?
In early April, the first Sunday of the month in fact, we have Easter – which, in fact and tradition, is our cultural celebration and commemoration of renewal and resurrection – the ultimate rebuttal of death – the final “cancel”.
Death (or cancel culture) gives way to life, to spring, to renewal and restoration. The shorter days, the grim weather and the darkest and coldest days of winter are behind us. Warmer weather, brighter flowers, more songbirds and maybe even a bunny or two are rapidly approaching.
Will the cancel culture prophets bemoan our loss of chilly, dank weather and limited daylight? Not likely, but I’m sure these purveyors of their own gloom will find another rallying cry, another lost cause to claim.
The seasons keep changing, and “cancel culture” is just one of nature’s processes.
Nothing, human or natural, stays the same for long.
We can celebrate it or complain about it.
But yes, irony is back. And so, it seems, is ignorance.
There is nothing new under the sun the Scriptures tell us (Ecclesiastes 1:9), and history tells that indeed there is a time for every season and activity – and slogan, apparently.
“Cancel culture” is just another term for the Christian concept of supersessionism, the doctrine that Christianity “supersedes” Judaism, and each expression of Christianity “supersedes” any previous version, and Christianity, in any form, “supersedes” any native or local faiths. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supersessionism
Traditional Christian missionary goals have been the total and deliberate erasure of native cultures – from across North America to South America, Africa and Asia.
The much criticized “Cancel culture” has actually been the MO (modus operandi) of Christianity for centuries.
There is literally nothing new about it.
The neglect, if not outright erasure, of the historical and cultural contribution of minorities and indigenous people, and women of all ethnicities has been one of the few constants in our public school and shared view of global, and certainly American history.
We just left Black History Month. Why do we even need it?
We need it because Black contributions to art, history, technology, culture and much more have been “cancelled” for decades if not centuries in Europe and North America.
Ever hear of the Black female engineers the movie “Hidden Figures” was based on, or hear of the Tulsa massacre before last year?
Or even know that many of our technologies that we take for granted from ironing boards to 3-light traffic lights and hundreds more were invented by people of color? https://www.history.com/news/8-black-inventors-african-american
And how many of us knew how many women, from spies to inventors to writers and engineers changed life forever for us all? https://www.biography.com/tag/womens-history
The original “Cancel culture” worked to ensure that you didn’t.
All this hand-wringing about “Cancel culture” just sounds like complaining to me.
From theology to politics, it has always been with us – and it always will be.
Like a good keeper of a home, we just need to know what to keep and what to get rid of. And it will never be an easy decision.
The next generation may not always agree with us, and we may not like what they do with our monuments and inventions, but that’s what the unrelenting march of history looks like.
