The proper office of satire…

Last updated on: June 2, 2016 at 7:17 pm by Mark Shea

The proper office of satire… 2016-06-02T19:17:40-07:00 Mark Shea

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…is to mock the failings of the powerful and exalt their victims. As Bp. Barron has noted, one of the functions of a crucifix, particularly coupled with the words “Ave” directed to the Blessed Virgin was to mock not only the power of Rome (“Hail Caesar” was the greeting of imperial Rome that rang daily in the ears of those under its bootheel), but to mock the power of the ultimate King of Death, Satan. And so Mary herself declares, in a surprisingly martial tone, “He has cast down the mighty in their arrogance and lifted up the lowly” and Paul tells us that by his cross Christ “disarmed the principalities and powers and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in him” (Col 2:15).

So there has always been a place in the Christian tradition for the humorist who takes the powerful down a peg and lifts up those whose faces are ground by the arrogant.

But in the new era of Trump’s Amerikka, satire and humor is being corrupted like so much else and mortal sin is, as ever, throwing over itself the cloak of “courage” in order to invert the scale of values. New voices are being heard who label compassion for those weaker than themselves “political correctness” and then use their power to direct mockery, not at the arrogant, but at the poor, the defenseless, the disabled.

Exhibit A: the pathetic Gary Owen, who earns his bread from his audience of bullies by making fun of “retards”. As all grave sinners do, Owen cloaks his bullying cruelty under the cover of “courage” and, as Trump’s base (in every sense of that word) loves to do, swaggers that he isn’t afraid of his victims (much as the gang rapist is not afraid of the woman he and his pals have beaten into unconsciousness).

His routine ranges from being insulting to people with intellectual disabilities to being dangerous in that it recalls practices ranging from institutionalization to infanticide. He mocks their speech, mocks their love, mocks their sexuality, mocks them as people and worst of all, does so without any qualms or hesitation. He can pick on his cousin. Why? According to him: because she’s “retarded.” Apparently, she isn’t worthy of even the most basic dignity. To him.

And Showtime has awarded this wretched bottom feeder with a TV special, because in Trump’s Amerikkka, an audience for this is now feeling comfortable enough to emerge from under the rocks and crawl out into the daylight to flex the swastikas tattooed on their fishbelly white, skinny little arms.

Of course, such “courage” melts like snow in the face of real courage, such as that of Jo Cunningham, another fierce Jewish Catholic mom like Our Lady, who has no problem casting down the mighty in their arrogance and lifting up the lowly. Meet her son Sam.

They are going to confront Owen to his face and dare him to call Sam a “retard” in front of his audience of mouthbreathers. That’s real courage. Pray for them as they bear authentic Christian witness to the dignity of all human life in the face of a now thoroughly pagan postmodernism that is well on the way to gladiatorial games in the arena. And pray for the conversion of this miserable human being and every pathetic sinner who think this filth is funny. Christ died even for such as them–especially for such as them.

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