Satire is so prevalent in our culture these days. We see it in the media, in the arts, and even in everyday conversation. Isn't satire supposed to be a genre, not an all encompassing mode of speech and writing that we use without even thinking? Satirists of the past, such as Mark Twain and Jonathan Swift, were we renowned for their wit and accessible writing. Some may even call Swift the "father of modern satire". His work, "A Modest Proposal", detailed a thorough plan for dealing with famine in Ireland: cannibalize children. This of course sounds monstrous, but that is the point. The main goal of a satirist is to evoke a change in the reader for the better. The satire we see nowadays is all humorous. Before, this was not something that was mutually exclusive to the genre. All of the "South Park's" and "Family Guy's" of the world, while still attempting to stay true to the purpose of satire, have desensitized their audiences so much that they don't even think about what they're experiencing. What's the point then? The state of the English language, especially in the US, is even worse. When was the last time you remember having a conversation where someone wasn't using sarcasm? What about something being ironic? I can't either. We can't even take our daily lives seriously anymore. It's disgusting.
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