So It Goes
The Ironist
believes that all human behavior, all social trends, all whim and fortune
swing like the pendulum of a giant clock. The position of moderation, that
rare instant in time when human behavior is in balance, suspended in space
equidistant between two distasteful extremes is represented by the very bottom
of the pendulums arch. Unfortunately for the Ironist, and everyone else come
to think of it, the pendulum is never at rest in this position. It is of course
much to busy to stop in this position, or for that matter any other position,
being as it is so full of its own momentum, so anxious to obey the physical
laws of the universe and rush of pell-mell to the opposite extreme from which
its just come, one extreme creating its own and opposite extreme, over and
over, ad infinitum.
Believing all this, it follows that when
things are going the Ironist's way he worries about the inevitability of the
time when they will be going someone elses'. In fact, the stronger and longer
fortune smiles on the Ironist the more he must worry, for he knows down to
the deepest muddle of his ironist soul that his days in the sun must and will
spawn their own opposite and evil twin. Conversely, when the Ironist is down,
crushed, depressed, he is filled with optimism and delight, knowing full well
that his good time must follow as surely as day follows night.
So it goes for the
Ironist. So it goes. So it goes.
-Just a little bit from "Gooks in the Wire"
