Deliberative Democracy and Comic Voice

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Deliberative Democracy and Comic Voice

• Sammy Basu PhD
• Associate Professor of Politics
• Willamette University
• Salem Oregon, USA

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Overview

• 1. Deliberative democracy
• 2. Whats so bad about humor?
• 3. What is humor?
• 4. Whats so bad about deliberative democracy?
• 5. The ironic speech situation

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Deliberative democracy
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2. Whats so bad about humor?

• Jurgen Habermas and the Ideal Speech Situation
  according to which In the final analysis, the
  normative content arises from the very structure
  of communicative actions (199626).

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• Jedediah Purdy (1999) in For Common Things
  Irony, Trust, and Commitment in America Today.
• 9-11 encouraged commentators across the
  ideological spectrum to opine hopefully, as Roger
  Rosenblatt (2001) did in Time, that One good
  thing could come from this horror it could spell
  the end of the age of irony.

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1. The boor
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2. The Cynic
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• A kind of high-water mark in popular
  humorphobia was reached with Purdys For Common
  Things. In it Purdy (1999xii) pointed to the
  widespread cultivation of irony as a personal
  manner as the source of the national inhibition
  to speak earnestly of uncertain hopes.

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3. The buffoon
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• For Habermas (1982271), jokes, fictional
  representations, irony, games, and so on, rest on
  intentionally using categorical confusions which,
  in the wake of the differentiation of
  validity-claims and corresponding modes
  (being/illusion, is/ought, essence/appearance),
  are seen through as category mistakes.

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4. The hysteric
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3. What is humor?
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Theories of Humor
Physiological/ Sensory Affective/ Evaluative
RELIEF pleasurable relief as pent-up nervous energy, anxiety, or sensory excitement is rapidly deflated RELEASEpleasurable release of psychic energy otherwise used to regulate or repress socially taboo topics or desires
(Juxtaposition)the close juxtaposition of two or more phenomena, frames, etc.
INCONGRUITY pleasurable recognition of the close juxtaposition of the familiar against what initially is unexpected and/or meaningless but subsequently proves compactly yet pivotally meaningful SUPERIORITYpleasurable sense of ones relative eminence at the expense of someone or something aggressively downgraded
Cognitive/Intellectual
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Physiological/ Sensory Affective/ Evaluative
Hysteric Boor
RELIEF RELEASE
(Juxtaposition)
INCONGRUITY SUPERIORITY
Buffoon Cognitive/Intellectual Cynic
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4. Whats so bad about deliberative democracy?
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• Boor,
• or
• Devils
• Advocate?

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• It would seem that you cannot be funny without
  being vulgar . For it is not only sex that is
  vulgar. So are death, childbirth and poverty,
  the other three subjects upon which the best
  music-hall humour turns. And respect for the
  intellect and strong political feeling, if not
  actually vulgar, are looked upon as being in
  doubtful taste. You cannot be really funny if
  your main aim is to flatter the comfortable
  classes it means leaving out too much. To be
  funny, indeed, you have got to be serious.
  Orwell (1968)

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2. Buffoon, or

• Holistic critic
• Specific critic
• Linguistic critic

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Holistic criticism Modern Times
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• Specific
• Criticism

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• Linguistic criticism
• Support our tropes

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4. Hysteria or just cracking up?
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5. The ironic speech situation
Truth
ideal reasonedspeech
testimony
Critical Disengagement exit foot-dragging and mumbling critical engagement through comic voice lipserviceand marching loyalty Uncritical Engagement
fraud
force
Untruth
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