How would you describe "Irony"?

[GingerSnaps]

I have to do a thesis in my Psycology class on Irony. We have to make up a fictitious town with two groups of people in it.

I need some opinions on Irony and how it comes back to haunt individuals after it has happened.

The town consists of two groups of people.

1st Group consists of

People that are Free Thinkers
People with the same problems as the other group
People that are Honest
People that are Open-They speak their minds on any topic
People that are an Accepting Group That want the other group to be part of their group
People that view someone like that could be me
"Non-Busybodies"

2nd Group consists of

People that are set in their ways
People that like a leader of the group
People that don't value others opinions
People that have a mentality that I am better then you are
People who feel like they have achieved something when they hurt someone else
People who don't accept someone outside of their realm or group
"Busybodies"

The second group of people go after the first group of people.
They want to silence the other group so that they can mandate the way that they town thinks and they can be in charge of the town and say who gets evicted and who stays in the town. The second group has a member that doesn't like the people from the first group so she/he goes after them and after getting rid of one of them she/he starts on the next person in the first group until all of the other members are gone. The second group takes it upon themselves as a challenge to wipe out people in the other group and they chalk it up as a success and after each one that they conquer has been removed they celebrate it as if they have achieved some type of victory.


The 2nd group finds themself alone all of a sudden and another group comes in to conquer them and destroy each one of them until they have the same success that the 2nd group had. Each one of their group starts getting picked apart by the new group of people and somehow they think that it isn't fair which deals with Irony.

The group of people that thought that they had achieved success in what they were doing actually destroyed their little town further down the road but they couldn't see it happening because they were blind to the fact that it takes all kinds of people to run a town and only a one group of people to ruin the town.

It's kind of Ironic that the same people that destroyed part of the town would be complaining about the town that they had helped destroy in the first place.

Their beliefs were that they were more important than other individuals and they were better then the group that they went after.

In the long run they achieved nothing that was a success.

How would you describe Irony and if you had to pick two groups in history to describe Irony what two groups would you pick?

This is only an example:
Kind of like the Republicans vs Democrats. They want to destroy our party and then after it has been destroyed another group will come in and start to destroy them and one day they will wake up to the fact that they are in the minority and not the majority. :D

[TalkingDog]

1. Utterly transparent n/t

[NMDemDist2]

2. Irony? the * administrations comments on the Ukrainan elections n/t

[ElsewheresDaughter]

6. anymore "irony" from the * admin and magnets are gonna stick to my skull

[RagingInMiami]

3. My definition of irony

http://www.voanews.com/english/2004-11-22-voa49.cfm

[bobthedrummer]

4. Dense carbon?

[GingerSnaps]

7. How about two rock groups that are both headliners

Both bands get billed for the same show let's say at the Castle Donnington Festival. Both bands argue over who is going to go on first because they both refuse to go on following the other band because they both are as famous as each other.

One band finds faults in the other band so they bring them down a notch because they have all of their family and friends sit at home and call radio stations requesting their song so that one band goes up a notch on Billboards charts. So they get to go on second in the end and they win.

Down the road someone else does the same thing to them but instead of being a Headline band they become a One Hit Wonder band and they vanish off of the music scene.

Irony at it's best!

[bobthedrummer]

9. And they both "borrowed" from other musicians-there's the irony!

:hi:

[GingerSnaps]

10. That's not your riff in the background it's mine

Because I changed one cord :D

[American Tragedy]

5. Weird thesis. Hmm. As I understand it, the simplest definition of irony is

"the opposite of what would be expected", so it's not even necessarily negative or positive.

As for your scenario, I am sure there are plenty of real historical parallels that you could follow. One could even argue for the contemporary sociological example in which we presently live, as I'm sure you were thinking when you got the assignment! I'll post again if I think of a really precise one that doesn't sound as partisan.

[GingerSnaps]

8. I would appreciate it

Its my final and any input would be greatly appreciated.

:hug:

[JVS]

11. It's like RAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIN ON YOUR WEDDING DAY

THE GOOD ADVICE you just didn't take!

[GingerSnaps]

15. I think that you got the jest of it

:D

[TalkingDog]

28. Technically those are not examples

of true irony. They are merely examples of bad luck or bad choices.

Ms. Morrisette needs to use a dictionary the next time she decides to write a song involving precise terminology...

That said, it is ironic that she intended to write a clever song about irony but instead made herself look like an uneducated idiot.

[phaseolus]

12. your scenario reminds me of an old Greg Palast column

http://www.gregpalast.com/detail.cfm?artid=6&row=1

...in which the local NFIB crowd overturns his town's efforts to keep its small town ambiance, then the big box stores swoop in & put 'em all out of business

[GingerSnaps]

13. Thank you for the link

My Professor tells me that I am very philosophical whatever that means :shrug:

[wickerwoman]

14. I think you're talking more about karma than irony

in the strictest sense.

Technically dramatic irony just means one person being unaware of some crucial information. The character then says something or acts contrary to their own best interests due to information they lack.

Verbal irony is the kind we're most familiar with- praising something as a way of dispraising it. AKA sarcasm.

I don't think one political party or the other has the corner on ironic behavior. But gays, women, minorities and poor people who vote for republicans are acting very ironically.

I think the republican party is more sinister than ironic. They know that the shit they do will have a negative long-term impact and they do it anyway because they don't care and they think money will shield them from the consequences. I'd like to think they're wrong (hence in an ironic situation) but I doubt it.

[GingerSnaps]

16. The political party is an example

The irony part is not the example. I have a hard time explaining myself sometimes. Sorry :hug:

[BigAlex]

17. Your story isn't that good

GingerSnaps -

Your story really isn't that good, and doesn't portray irony at all...

A good example of irony I think, from historical events, would be from the old days of Europe when they were suffering from the Bubonic plague -- the "Black Death". This disease was mainly caused by rats (and the fleas that lived on those rats), which were in abundant supply due to the squalid living conditions of the people of that time.

People somehow got the idea in their heads that cats were the main culprit of the disease, so they started to systematically round them up and kill them... Well, killing off the cats let the rat population grow, making the plague even worse (hence the irony of the situation)...

[GingerSnaps]

20. How about the blankets that were given to the American Indians?

Your entitled to your opinion. Welcome to DU.

:eyes:

We supplied the American Indians with blankets that gave them a disease and then the disease spread to our own people. Wouldn't you say that is a part of Irony?

[BigAlex]

22. Not really

The blankets that the settlers gave to the Indians were infected with Smallpox and other things, but they were diseases that _already existed_ among the settler population. While smallpox was devastating to the Indian population, it really didn't have that much additional effect on the settlers...

[GingerSnaps]

23. It sure as hell came back to bite us

It wiped out many of the settlers in the prairie lands. Research the history it's in the books.We were discussing this issue last week and it did wipe a large number of settlers.

[BigAlex]

31. well...

GingerSnaps -

I think the settlers would have suffered from Smallpox and other ailments even if the Indians hadn't been involved -- it was simply a disease that was common, and was being brought over from Europe with every new boat of settlers that came over...

By the way, I wanted to explain why I thought your initial story was bad (in the sense of being incorrect) -- and it wasn't just my opinion.

You talked about two groups of people, group A (pacifists) and group B (agressive types). Group B wiped out all of group A, because pacifists, true to their nature, will not be able to resist an agressive enemy. Then you introduce group C, who are even more agressive than group B (since they were able to wipe out group B).

If B is stronger than A, and C is stronger than B, then when C came along, it would have wiped out either group A, group B, or a combination of groups A and B. There's really no irony here, just a story of "survival of the strongest".

If you had reversed the order of the story, starting out with group C (the super-agressives), they would have wiped out group A as soon as they arrived, and then wiped out group B whenever they arrived. The end result is the same -- only group C survives.

Even combining the forces of groups A and B wouldn't have prevailed, since group A, being pacifists, wouldn't have added much to the fight that group B would put up against the super-agressives...

I hope that's clear (if not, then it's my fault for not explaining it very well)...

[flying_monkeys]

18. An Old Twilight Zone piece once did it best

Poor mousy guy, pressed for time, hassled by wife, life and job NEVER had time to read. Nuclear bomb went off while he was in his mousy job inside a bank vault, and he survived, alone. He found his way to the library and collected book upon book that he was dying to read and FINALLY had time!

He slipped on the steps out of the library and his foot crushed his reading glasses.


Now THAT is irony.

[GingerSnaps]

21. I'm a big fan of the Twilight Zone

It seems like the mousy people are the ones that want to alienate the others.

[Swede]

19. Irony is wasted on the stupid.

Now that's ironic.

[bumblebee1]

24. Irony

I got this one from a lesbian comedienne on Comedy Central the other day: Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C. is named for the President who fired all the air traffic controllers. Had to say to myself, "Yeah, you got a point there."

[GingerSnaps]

25. Now, that's Irony

:D Every time one of the fired Air Traffic Controllers hears the name of the airport it probably drives them up a wall.

[elfrangel]

26. George Carlin has a bit on how people misdefine 'irony'

------------------------------------------------
Irony deals with opposites; it has nothing to do with coincidence.
If two baseball palyers from the same hometown, on different teams, receive the same uniform number, it is not ironic. It is a coincidence. If Barry Bonds attains lifetime statistics identical to his father's it will not be ironic. It will be a coincidence.
Irony is "a state of affairs that is the reverse of what was to be expected; a result opposite to and in mockery of the appropriate result." For instance:

If a diabetic, on his way to buy insulin, is killed by a runaway truck, he is the victim of an accident. If the truck was delivering sugar, he is the victim of an oddly poetic coincidence. But if the truck was delivering insulin, ah! Then he is the victim of an irony.

If a Kurd, after surviving bloody battle with Saddam Hussein's army and a long, difficult escape through the mountains, is crushed and killed by a parachute drop of humanitarian aid, that, my friend, is irony writ large.

Darryl Stingley, the pro football player, was paralyzed after a brutal hit by Jack Tatum. Now Darryl Stingley's son plays football, and if the son should become paralyzed while playing, it will not be ironic. It will be coincidental. If Darryl Stingley's son paralyzes someone else, that will be closer to ironic. If he paralyzes Jack Tatum's son that will be precisely ironic.
-----------------------------------------------

[GingerSnaps]

27. The Irony about all of it is that they weren't exactly opposites

They lived in the same town and they had many things in common. :D

[Susang]

29. Why is your psychology class interested in a thesis on Irony?

:shrug:

[greatauntoftriplets]

30. I wondered that myself....

:hi: to you and Bat Boy!!!

[NightTrain]

32. Irony? Like when a Driver's Ed teacher gets into a car crash?

[GingerSnaps]

34. Yep

I got a few:

A hunter (example..Ted Nugent) kills a lion and then he gets killed by a lion...That's Irony

A College student(Walmart heiress) has someone else earn her college degree and then the college finds out and takes her degree away...Irony plus Karma LOL

[Socialist Dem]

33. My favorite quote:

The use of words expressing something other than their literal intention... Now that is "irony!"

- Bender Bending Rodriguez.