By Tom Dodge, KERA 90.1 commentator
Dallas, TX – The recent surfacing of Reverend Billy Graham's taped anti-Semitic remark to President Nixon is interesting because of the irony it shows at a time when irony is said to be dead. In case there might be someone who has forgotten in the wake of his recent triumphant Dallas appearance, Billy Graham was caught on a Nixon tape from the 1970s saying that Jews have a stranglehold on the media in this country, and if Nixon is re-elected then he will be in a position to do something about this. His apology was sincere but unnecessary for image control. His image is inalterable.
Despite the post-9/11 proclamation in the New York Times that irony is dead, it is in fact ironic that Dr. Graham's very dis-unifying remark should surface at a time after 9/11 when unity is the avatar of all those who want to believe that hope equals truth.
The public revelation that Dr. Graham's private beliefs seem opposed to his public image shows the eternal contrast between reality and the bright popular illusion that things are the way they appear to be simply because they are believed to be so. This incident further shows the fallacy of the idea that irony, meaning things are not as they seem, should not exist in a time of "united we stand." But if it had not been Reverend Graham's private beliefs contrasting with his public image it would have been some other example to show that belief does not equate with fact. When the New York Times editor proclaimed irony's death, he was speaking ironically. The irony is of course that the rain forest can be dead, elephants can be dead, oceans can be dead, Elvis can be dead (depending on who you talk to) but irony can never die.
Another ironic aspect of this incident is that it recalls to all of us the real reason for President Nixon's downfall in Watergate. He taped because he didn't trust anybody. Self-preservation killed him. Again, if Reverend Graham's apology is motivated by image repair, he needn't worry. His image long ago transcended reality and moved into the realm of myth. The myth that he is the one virtuous, unbiased, faithful man of God that we can all count on is deeply established in the collective consciousness of America. Myth cannot be altered by fact. Fact shows that Elvis Presley was a child-marrying, woman-abusing, television-screen-blasting, bloated and narcotized fried-banana-sandwich-eating slug, but the myth of his demi-godliness is forever intact. All the factual books exposing President Kennedy's salacious private life may as well be written on water. These are facts, all right, but they have no effect on our illusions. When fact and myth collide, myth wins every time.
The news of irony's death has been, as they say, greatly exaggerated. What should have been said is that irony is unpopular. Irony has always been unpopular. When it isn't, then and only then, it is dead.
Tom Dodge is a writer living happily in Midlothian, further proving, he says, that irony lives.