Irony and Identity

There are two aspects of the problem of irony, its existence and prevalence creates two forms of confusion. One is confusion of reception. How do we know whether to experience or interpret things ironically, or to what extent? There are social consequences to this confusion: 'mis'-interpretation causes disconnection, dissonance; it exposes disparities between viewpoints that seem 'fundamental' because they usually go silently assumed, and it also exposes those viewpoints themselves, as held by others and ourselves.

If the confusion of reception creates some conditions for self-questioning in that way (what are my silent assumptions? Do they match those of others?), the second type of confusion is still more self-oriented. This is confusion of intention. We could call it just a type of confusion of reception: i.e. self-reception, our own understanding of ourselves. Irony-saturated culture habituates us to ironic modes of expression. But when we have the irony habit, it sometimes seems hard to know when even we ourselves are being literal.

I find myself saying things, and then being unsure if I meant them ironically or not. So not only am I isolated from others by the potential for confusion of reception, I am isolated from myself as well. I don't know any longer what I really mean, or what I really think, or what I really am. I am now radically uncertain. So where do I go from here?