Ebony and Irony: Think Critically, or Hope?

So, it seems the NY intellectual cognoscenti (I've always wanted to use that word, but have been afraid to for fear that I would mispronounce it, so I'm thrilled that I am not reading this aloud right now), anyway, some NY folkhttp://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/23/fashion/23irony.html?scp=7&sq=andy%20newman&st=cse"> in a piece in the NY Times, were falling all over themselves to determine whether irony is allowed during the recent Obama hope-fest.

I don't claim to know much, but here's what I do know. Thinking critically and having hope are not mutually exclusive states of mind. These professional ironists think that if you have hope you are naïve, ignorant or maybe even plain dumb. But I beg to differ.

Hope could be seen as a state of mind that is hard wired into us all. Without it, most of us probably won't be getting out of bed and brushing our teeth tomorrow. Now, if we are talking about blind hope - well, that is something different, and I would not recommend it; I do believe that this is how they get you to drink the Kool-Aid.

But the hope I'm talking about is connected with our unique and amazing human ability to use one's imagination to envision a new outcome, a different path, a new way - and God knows, we need a lot of that right now.

Being able to fluidly move between hope and ironical skepticism (or any two opposing points of view) is indeed a sign of higher intelligence. Being stuck in either hope or skepticism (or cynicism or anything else on that side of the scale) seems a much more naïve and ignorant place to me.

I have had my own struggle with all this for the last few years. My father, George Carlin, was the master of bemused detachment, and I thank God for that. Without his brilliant take on how monumentally stupid we can be as human beings, the world would not have felt as safe as it did to me and many of his fans. He made us all think, reframe, and of course laugh in the process. But for a while, I was worried that his stance had removed any scrap of optimism and hope in him, and being some one of a younger generation who will be on this planet for at least the next 20-30 years, God willing (another topic for conversation with dad), and well I need a little hope in my day, and needed him to give me a little hope too. So, being my father's daughter, I challenged him on it. I said to him, "If you have given up on the human species as you claim, then why bother to get on stage and say anything at all? You clearly want to wake us up on some level, if so, then you must have some hope left in you somewhere." And he agreed, begrudgingly, but he agreed.

Now, I'm not saying that hope is all "the shit," and that we all have to skip around singing la la la la la all day long. Trust me, hope has led me astray for sure -- staying in an abusive relationship and then a truly unfulfilling marriage were both fueled by hope -- but it was very, very blind hope. Hope that refused to read the signs, see the truth: I'd call it Full Denial Hope. I do not recommend that kind of hope in any circumstance.

What kind of hope am I asking you to have? I guess I would call it Conscious Hope - where you are willing to hold a possibility that something can be different, and yet check in with reality too. Everything is made from thought. This is not some kind of mumbo jumbo woo woo bullshit. Think about it. The Brooklyn Bridge did not exist until some one imagined it in his mind, communicated this vision and then implemented it into reality. Without the imaginative leap to say, "Hey this is what it could look like," there could never be a bridge. But, then you have to roll up your sleeves and get to work.

So, here we are on the brink of a major era for America and the world. If you could let yourself hope, even if it is for just a few minutes, what might your imagination come up with? If you are a cynic, or a skeptic or an ironist, you use your mind all the time to assess, analyze and conclude. Why not use that part that rarely gets used and could use a little exercise -- why not try a little "Yes We Can" thinking? Check out of your head and into your heart. What does it want? What is it craving? What does it want to create?

These arguments about hope vs. irony are emblematic of what needs to change. It isn't that hope or irony are wrong, what's wrong is that we think we need to pit them against each other, and that they can't co-exist. The old lines in the sand are being erased on every level. The old, "Us vs. Them" is just so 20th century. This is an integral age where minds are ready to hold the tension of opposites and create from the unique energy that is created in that very tension. So bring on the hope, bring on the irony, let's roll up our sleeves and get to work.

Comments

[PositiveDeviant]

Kelly
Loved this read. I am constantly motivated by "conscious hope" (not blind...but critical, uncertain, conflicted, ironic....and immensely uplifting). We are privileged to live during these interesting times where we are challenged to abandon old paradigms. Tough stuff if living in "absolutes" like blind faith or constant skepticism.

You point us to start by considering the space just outside our current consciousness. Edging out to a scary place but one where our fear is our own illusion.

Thanks for taking us on a positive spin.

sg from Canada

[Kelly Carlin-McCall - Huffpost Blogger]

SG,
Great to see you here!!

I indeed am interested in pointing myself and others toward that space just outside our current consciousness - for me it is the most exciting work we have to do at this time on the planet.

I love how you put it - tough stuff if living in "ablsolutes" during this immense paradigm shift.

Blessings.
Kelly

[judico]

Kelly,
Great post! I look forward to reading more of what you have to say. Thanks for bringing your point of view to the conversation. ¨¨

I think that the most important change to emerge from the last election is that we can no longer afford to deny reality. We are paying and will continue to pay a huge price for this lapse. My hope is that Obama is wise enough to embrace reality and to work with it. To me, this means that politics won't change overnight but that there will be a willingness to hear and embrace ideas that are different, contradictory and most importantly, effective in dealing directly with the needs of the present moment and our collective future. ¨¨

I'd like to think of conscious hope as a daring commitment to an outcome that is not guaranteed but much needed. I also see hope as change attracting attention. Conscious hope seems to lead to active responsible change and a calling forth of information, education and strategy. ¨

As a native New Yorker (although long transplanted in California) I know about irony. Perhaps, it is ironic to say this but I don't believe that you can have hope without irony. The universe is awash in mystery and paradox. Without the opposite of anything, it's impossible to experience the whole. Ironically, irony and hope are not different at all. The yearning for change reaches out through both of those experiences and grabs us either way.
Judith Cohen¨

[Kelly Carlin-McCall - Huffpost Blogger]

Judith,

I love your definition of conscious hope - a daring commitment to an outcome that is not guaranteed but much needed. Lovely.

And that irony expresses a yearning for change too - GOD that is so true, and probably my biggest point to my father, that hidden inside his dismissal of the species was a deep longing for us to get it right.

Thanks for commenting, and I look forward to more conversations with you.

[misanthrope26]

I can't say that you've changed my worldview, but you've certainly given me something to think about. I have to say though, I enjoyed reading reading your article not just for the ideas in it, but also because of how well it was written. You have a real facility with words.

[Kelly Carlin-McCall - Huffpost Blogger]

Misanthrope26 - love the moniker, and does this mean that there are 25 other misanthropes here on this site?

And if I made you think, well then you made me smile.

And thank you for the compliment - my dad used to say, "You don't lick it off the rocks," when it came to my love of language.

Be well.

[dbrownstein]

nice. sort of "post modern hope"

yeah, conscious hope. i like it.

-db

http://hollywoodcoaching.typepad.com/the_new_hollywood_leader/

[Kelly Carlin-McCall - Huffpost Blogger]

Hey DB,

Maybe even integral hope?

[heylookitsdan]

Kelly-
Smart people understand the difference between hope and blind faith. We strive to achieve the best of ourselves while acknowledging the obstacles and frailties to which we are vulnerable. Your father was an inspiration and an educator in my life. My love of language and the effect and intent of the use of the language is absolutely informed by his work. Keep posting! Your arrival at the Huff Po is a great thing and it's totally the right place for you to carry that torch in your own way.
-Dan Pasternack

[Kelly Carlin-McCall - Huffpost Blogger]

Dan,

AND...sometimes smart people get trapped in their habit minds of cynicism. I see it as a defense mechanism - a useful filter for survival, but not always helpful. In Buddhism there is a term - dukkha - that literally means "a stuck wheel." When we are stuck in one perspective, it will always bring about suffering because we are not able to use all or our mind/heart wisdom.

AND, thanks for commenting and supporting my work here. I love that we have connected. I feel your hand around mine as I hold the torch up high.

[AwakenedWisdom]

Yes and it is always important to check in with our self and ask who in me is hoping? or Who in me is being cynical?
Each of us has a Divine nature within that imagines, creates, and can look into the present moment and realize that something new or different is possible here and then go about creating it.
As well, that same Divine nature can look at those ideas and say, Hey! What could go wrong here? It is important information to consider.
On the other hand we each of an aspect of us that is the judgmental/cynical/critical/non-constructive/the, it will never work out anyway type. Putting that part of us in charge of the hope department seldom reveals any new ideas. That distorted aspect of us will generally just tear things apart just to spare us the risk of disappointment. It is not particularly useful to put that one in charge of anything.
So it is important to hope and to wish and to question and ask what am I missing in my hopefulness.
Thanks for provoking Kelly.

[Kelly Carlin-McCall - Huffpost Blogger]

Awakened Wisdom,
Great to see you here!

Yes. Yes. Yes. Exactly my point. Thank you for joining the conversation. I look forward to your insights always.

[protagonia]

That is one of the clearest descriptions of anit-dogmatic philosophy I have ever read.

You are a wonderful and brilliant writer, Kelly Carlin-McCall.

I look forward to more of your concise insights.

[Kelly Carlin-McCall - Huffpost Blogger]

Protagonia,

Thank you!

You get where I stand - where Rumi talks about when he says, "meet me in the field out beyond right and wrong."

[protagonia]

Precisely.

A greater pragmatism.

Please contribute often.

I am your fan.

[carole131]

Amen, Sister! My husband & I are 73 & 71 years old. We hold conscious hope, & keep our eyes & ears open. The naysayers & skeptics are cheating themselvs. !@#% 'em! And I was once a Sunday school teacher?!

[Kelly Carlin-McCall - Huffpost Blogger]

Carole,
You just put a big fat smile on my face. Keep on keeping on.

[ouroborous]

Clearly this is in re Obama and a lot of the progressive criticism of his cabinet choices.

And yet, I don't know that there's much disagreement with you from the progressive front: we are hopeful for Obama, but (as you advocate) we're also not willing to blindly trust that he'll always Do the Right Thing (props to Spike Lee). Politicians have too many agendas, too many lobbyists, and too many agents bending their ear for any sane citizen to assume that any politician will automatically, without oversight and criticism, do the right thing.

So I hope that the left keeps up its pressure on Obama. Not to undercut him or take him down, but rather to keep the pressure on him to be the person we all want him to be. Will he (or should he) listen to or blindly obey every whim on the progressive left? No. But neither should he completely ignore and write off progressives while paying homage to the mythical "center" and to the Republicans.

As you say, realism is not the enemy of hope. It is its necessary partner.

[Kelly Carlin-McCall - Huffpost Blogger]

Ouroborous - first of all, love your moniker!

As I wrote this I did not have the progressives reactions to the cabinet choices of Obama in mind. But I see how it might apply.

What I hope to talk about, stir up and create in my postings are discussions and thoughts that move way beyond standard partisan pushing and shoving. I feel that if we don't rise above the fray, we will not ever reach our true potential as a country.

That said, I agree with what you have to say here. We need to keep all our leader's feet to the fire, and ensure that they are walking their talk.

I truly believe that it is a turning that is occurring, and that every single one of us must become the leaders we wish we had. And in order to do that we need vision and our feet on the ground.