Page 83 - The Irony Board
P. 83
Into the World
A feather
In the cap
Betrays
The bird brain.
Concluding the anti-professional theme, this little bit of mock-
proverbial word-play encapsulates Gluckman’s existentialist view of
social life. As Marx and Sartre emphasized, a person is not his or her
institutional role; it is ultimately immoral to base one’s personal
beliefs or public actions on the ideologies promoted by government,
business, or church. Birds flock together and exhibit scant
intelligence; the feather of praise, like other invidious symbols of
status bestowed by authoritarian leadership, is worn with pride only
by those of avian cranial capacity.
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