MAFA: MAKE ABSURDITY FUN AGAIN

Brought to you by OOFAH — Online Ontologists For Absurd Humor

Filed under: Ethicsphere Faultlines: Tribe, Trope, and Trotsky

IDENTITY FOR ME, BUT NOT FOR THEE

“It isn’t the ideology that defines the tribe… It’s the tribe that defines the ideology.”

—The Lewis Brothers, Semi-Reluctant Structuralists[1][2]

BLACK CLOUD SPEAKS

Chief Poetic Justice Warrior of the Council-of-Concerned-Conservationists

Kemosabe, you forgot again. It’s all tribe now. Tribe define path, not pamphlet.

White man chase ideology like coyote chasin’ tail. Go off trail to doomscrolling—fall in canyon of comment threads. Join our Council. We laugh like fire laughs in dark. Not laugh at. Laugh with. Only half-wit don’t see “laugh with” do rhyme. Better half than no-wit. You savvy?

Look here: Oyvey Nation. We call them Redfeet. They start Trotskyite, turn neo-conservative to protect border over by Holy Land. 86 identity for legacy Americans. Now they go woke. But only for themselves and the Others. Full circle or full spiral? Ask council geomancers. American conservative? They got leash put on by clever tribe. Bark on command.

Remember Ed Ames—Jewish singer from Brooklyn, played Mingo on the Daniel Boone show. That’s the trail we ride. Identities all tangled like tumbleweed in windstorm. My tongue speak King’s English when needed like Mingo—but also tribal, Bronxwise, Brooklynwise. Truth ain’t got one dialect. Identity ain’t got one canoe.

THE EDITORS ADD:

At OOFAH, we strive to remind our readers that ideology is the costume of the tribe. Some dress left, others dress right—but it’s the tailor of belonging that cuts the cloth. That’s why civic nationalists revere magic dirt and zoning regulations alike. And that’s why we here at the Council say:

“Better a strange tribe with good jokes who know who they are than a bland tribe with rigid doctrine that seeks to homogenize everything.”

We propose this be included in the upcoming Council newsletter under the special insert:

“Signs, Signifiers, and the Smoke Signals of Belonging: A Semiotic Hunting Party”

Or perhaps in a dossier from OOFAH titled:

“Absurdity: A Weapon of Tribal Clarification.”

Further Reading & Viewing:

Article: The Left-Right Spectrum Is Mostly Meaningless An exploration of how political labels often serve tribal affiliations more than coherent ideologies. Read the article

Article: The Extreme Center: How the Neocons Went Woke A critique of how neoconservatives have shifted alliances in the modern political landscape. Read the article

Video: Ed Ames bemoans Obama Dems’ illiberal hostility towards dissent against their philo-Islamo-Marxism A satirical take on political discourse and identity. Watch the video

FOOTNOTES:

[1] The Lewis brothers, The Myth of Left and Right: How the Political Spectrum Misleads and Harms America (2023), as summarized in Reason.com, May 21, 2023. The article notes their core argument: “A conservative or liberal is not someone who has a conservative or liberal philosophy, but someone who belongs to the conservative or liberal tribe.” See: https://reason.com/2023/05/21/the-left-right-spectrum-is-mostly-meaningless/

[2] Editorial Clarification: The Lewis Brothers are not structuralists in the classical sense, but Council protocol allows for honorary metaphysical designations. In this case, “(semi-reluctant) structuralists” was bestowed in recognition of their unintentional contribution to the architecture of tribal semiotics. They may decline the title. We insist.