On My Lack Of Satire
Longtime readers of my work will notice that unlike the work of many other radical libertarians who produce essays or videos, my content is consistently presented in a straightforward manner. Nowhere to be found in my body of work thus far is a satirical article. As an explanation of this may help the reader of my work to better understand the author, I will take time to inform my readers concerning my lack of use of satire.
Unlike my case against using profanity, this is not simply a matter of personal choice backed by a multitude of reasons. I greatly admire authors who have used satire to make a strong case for liberty, as Frederic Bastiat did in his Candlemaker’s Petition. Unfortunately, this style of writing is not my strong suit. Should I ever gain this strength, I would endeavor to use it, but the best work I can produce at the time of this writing consists of face-value explanations and rebuttals.
This is not to say that I have not tried, however. In fact, I have made several efforts to produce satirical content, all of which have ended in one of three ways. Each of these are best exemplified by a particular article, so I will spend the remainder of this article reviewing those works in light of how my attempts at satire have diverged into other directions.
An Unavoidable Poe
The first example is an article which is unpublished and will almost certainly remain so. I pretended to be a social justice warrior to see if I could criticize them by writing from their perspective and reaching obviously false and absurd conclusions. But there are some people whose views are so outlandish that it is impossible to satirize them. It turns out that Poe’s Law is real and can be unavoidable. I decided not to publish the result for fear that a social justice warrior might take the satire at face value and use it for inspiration and motivation. Although the intent would be clear when nestled among my other works, it could easily be plagiarized and republished elsewhere where this would not be the case. This is the worst of the three possibilities, as it results in a lost article and a waste of the effort expended in writing it. The silver lining from this particular episode is that I turned my attention toward compiling a glossary of social justice warrior terminology, which remains one of my most frequently read works, but this does not usually happen.
A Reasonable Absurdity
The second example is “The Pragmatic Libertarian Case for Nuclear Proliferation.” This was originally going to be a rebuttal to “The Pragmatic Libertarian Case for a Basic Income Guarantee” by Matt Zwolinski. I planned to apply the arguments that Zwolinski used to argue for an alternative to the current welfare state to a different situation in order to reach the conclusion that nuclear weapons should be guaranteed to all nations, or perhaps even to all individuals. Upon further consideration, I realized that this idea is not half as absurd or frightening as it sounds. This resulted in the article changing from a satirical work after Zwolinski’s format into a face-value work in its own format. The subject change resulted in the removal of content concerning redistribution of resources, as the final article is about other nation-states or private actors developing a nuclear deterrent of their own rather than being given one from elsewhere. Eventually, this article led to two more articles in the same vein which apply the case to a particular situation and take it to its logical conclusion, respectively. Thus, what was going to be an April Fools article became a serious case for more nuclear-armed entities in the world. While far better than the first outcome because a useful article (series) was the result, it was taken less seriously than it otherwise would have been due to the publishing date of April 1.
Only Half Kidding
The third example is “Bring Back the Joust: A Modest Proposal.” In this article, the case is made for the replacement of democratic elections with jousting tournaments in which candidates battle to the death for the right to hold public office. While it is highly unlikely that such a system would ever be tried in the current era, it has several advantages over democracy. This, like the second example, was a joke that turned serious upon further examination. But the format of the piece never changed; it was always going to be a proposal followed by a history lesson, a case for the proposal, likely effects, and a consideration of likely objections. This is the best outcome of the three, in that an article was produced, no rewrite or reorganization was necessary, and the article is both thought-provoking and fun for the reader. Even so, the tone and format are only applicable in some cases.
Conclusion
Each author must write in the manner that works best for them. Unfortunately, as shown above, satire does not appear to be a manner that works for me.
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