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In The Concept of Irony, Kierkegaard muestra que el principio de la sociedad moderna sigue
siendo la totalidad sin apropiación. Por tanto, presenta a su época como un organismo sin
subjetividad y que representa el hundimiento de su posibilidad. A diferencia de Hegel, quien
piensa que la historia le ha dado un lugar a la subjetividad después de haber girado en torno al
Estado ateniense del siglo V BC, Kierkegaard piensa que ese Estado ha sobrevivido a sus ruinas
y se ha perpetuado en el tiempo. El pensador danés hace un diagnóstico de su época y en ella
nos presenta la imagen de una sociedad que exige abrir la boca y estar en permanente
habladuría para ser contado entre el público y en el registro de los archivos. Nos dice que su
sociedad no soporta la subjetividad que disfruta del silencio o que solo haces gestos faciales
para expresar que no hay nada por decir cuando son desveladas las ironías sociales. Nos dice
que su sociedad sencillamente ama la idea de comunidad, en la cual el único requisito es la
presencia de todos en el pelotón y ser vistos dentro de la fila de la historia universal sin importar
que la mirada de un soldado esté fuera de línea. Es una sociedad que tiende a minimizar la ironía
subjetiva del ‹‹todos transformado en muchos›› o en tres votos de más, como en el juicio de
Sócrates. Otra imagen que brinda de su época, es representarla como una cacería de lobos
hambrientos que destrozan la escritura de autores irónicos. Una cacería de brujas tan irreflexiva
que, pese a ser el mismo escritor quien advierte no tener ningún mensaje positivo para ser
estudiado párrafo por párrafo, cada letra es devorada como si encerrará el secreto de la vida.
Situación que evoca la polémica de Kierkegaard por la recensión que hace Frederick Beck sobre
The Concept of Irony. Los críticos literarios trabajan tan absortos por brindarle un servicio a la
totalidad que olvidan apropiarse de sí mismos para poder entender, al menos, las advertencias
que hace un integrante de la totalidad sobre su escritura irónica. En últimas, Kierkegaard
muestra que la sociedad moderna en ningún momento ha significado la restitución de la
subjetividad, como lo supone Hegel; por el contrario, la sociedad moderna es la perpetuación
del Estado ateniense que persigue y obstaculiza el desarrollo de la subjetividad irónica.
The Concept of Irony is, among other things, one of Kierkegaard's early concerns about the
matter of subjectivity. Irony is the first manifestation of subjectivity, it is the beginning of its
history that, like every beginning, is always negative. Through irony subjectivity discovers the
weak foundations of society and the need for a movement that puts it outside the true
discourses proclaimed in the agora of the State. With irony subjectivity hatches from the of
negative freedom, because for the ironic stricto sensu there is nothing to force it, unless he does
it himself in the middle of a world in ruins and flames. In other words, irony is subjectivity as
soon as it breaks the umbilical cord that as chains they tie her to society and as soon as it
perceives that living in small houses is much better than living in monumental palaces. To give
rise to subjectivity, irony must reveal that in society the things said are not precisely what they
say, it must reveal that what is thought results in something contrary to what was thought. So it
reveals a deviation in the path that leads from ideality to reality. In general, this distortion of
existence, where the phenomenon does not match the essence and where language becomes
mistaken, is a constant factor in society, since in it the truth is the mere criterion of the totality
without take account appropriation. What matters is the number and not so much what is fair
in each case. The disastrous result of this model, according to Socrates, is that in the end nobody
knows what he knows, nobody believes what he believes and it happens that sacred ideals, like
the common good, become the good of the majority, but not in the good of all. In the end,
everything becomes incoherent and the message is the opposite of the promise. As long as the
truth does not enter into relation to each person, but only seeks to pass over it to seek its
universal approval, irony will discover that the word all does not imply all and, therefore, will
discover the negativity of the discourse social.
In The Concept of Irony, Kierkegaard shows that the principle of modern society remains the
totality without appropriation. Therefore, it presents its epoch as an organism without
subjectivity and that represents the sinking of its possibility. Unlike Hegel, who thinks that
history has given a place to subjectivity after having revolved around the Athenian state of the
5th century BC, Kierkegaard thinks that state has survived its ruins and has been perpetuated in
time. The Danish thinker makes a diagnosis of his time and in it he presents the image of a society
that demands to open his mouth and be in permanent talkative to be told among the public and
in the record of the archives. He tells us that his society does not support the subjectivity that
enjoys silence or that you only make facial gestures to express that there is nothing to say when
social irony is revealed. He tells us that his society simply loves the idea of community, in which
the only requirement is the presence of everyone in the squad and to be seen within the line of
universal history regardless of whether a soldier's gaze is out of line. It is a society that tends to
minimize the subjective irony of the ‹‹ all transformed into many ›› or three more votes, as in
Socrates' judgment. Another image he offers of his time is to represent it as a hunt for hungry
wolves that destroy the writing of ironic authors. A witch hunt so thoughtless that, despite being
the same writer who warns of not having any positive message to be studied paragraph by
paragraph, each letter is devoured as if it would contain the secret of life. Situation that evoke
by Kierkegaard's controversy over Frederick Beck's recension on The Concept of Irony. Literary
critics work so absorbed in providing a service to the totality that they forget to appropriate
themselves in order to understand, at least, the warnings made by a member of the totality
about his ironic writing. Ultimately, Kierkegaard shows that modern society has never meant the
restitution of subjectivity, as Hegel supposes; on the contrary, modern society is the
perpetuation of the Athenian state that persecutes and hinders the development of ironic
subjectivity.
Within the scope of our contemporary society, the iconic image of Tank-Man is a chronicle of
how the rational sophistication of violence increasingly blurs the sense of subjective
appropriation. The current society justifies the defense of its values with the use of excessive
force, each time the logic is to create devices and tools that leave without control to the same
citizens. The imagination reaches the clouds and ideas of omnipotent machines arise that not
only terrorize, but sow resignation, despair and helplessness in people. It is an era where the
negative freedom of subjectivity faces an awareness of fatality and destiny. The advancement
of technology has allowed to elaborate and plan monstrous destruction machines that generate
the feeling of being defeated before fighting, of having no way out. In past times, subjectivity
could fight and rebel against the limitations imposed by society, now subjectivity does not even
contemplate the option of fighting. The feeling of individuals in the face of the efficiency of
weapons of mass destruction is that there is nothing to do, that there is no human power that
resists, that is only turn the key and everything will be over forever. In this way, contemporary
society and its infinite imagination for war sophistication predict times in which the challenging
movements of subjectivity can fall prey to absolute nihilism because of the perversity and
banality of evil that states and societies have legitimized.