Satire 2020

How does a translation of a work of satire become persona — fiction non grata? — after over a decade?

I have written these words out and I am yet to understand whether I have written a satirical sentence about a real event about a work of satire and fiction about a real event, or whether this word salad is so unreal that it defies truth, or that the truth is so bizarre that it defies reality. This word salad seems apt, somehow, for this time that we live in - This Time - a time where what remained of our delusion of the dregs of rights of free speech that remained has faded away, even though it hasn’t been that long ago? Or has it? The headlines are about former dictators and their feelings, so perhaps nothing has changed at all, except it is the year 2020.

Happy new year, everyone. We live in a new decade, but we live in the past. The most powerful thing I have seen in the last few weeks is also a call from the past, but it also feels just as potent, even in the year 2020. And every time I hear this, reflected back with different speakers, different countries, I am reminded of that delusion again. Has it really been that long ago? I don’t think the question is how are we back here again, but that we’ve always been here, just trudging backward, one step at a time, left with our confounding word salads.