Political satire  

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Covert political satire (political satire written without naming its targets, or deliberately misnaming them in such a way as to make those targets difficult or puzzling to identify) has frequently been composed by critics of governmental policy, and circulated either privately or even under auspices of some official agency (in the case of the most indetectible of such satires, the official agency may even be sponsored by the government being satirized itself). Usually, in addition to the difficulty in identifying the contemporary target (who may be represented in the narrative under the name of some antique legendary figure) of the satire, there is some complexity in deducing that any irony in involved. The usual sign of such covert satire is extreme exaggeration claiming to glorify some policy of the government in such a way as to horrify (by the exaggeration's grisly details) the average reader, while pretending to extol (by providing those details, in a pompous, mock-heroic style) such governmental policy. The long-range purpose of such covert political satire is to engender sentiments of longing for pacifism and universal good-will among all peoples.

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Ancient Hellenic

The authors of the Iliad, in providing extremely gory details of butchery of humans in battle, may have intended a covert satirical effect on the audience. Surely, the ascription of the authorship of the mock-heroic Batrakho-muo-makhia ('Battle between the Frogs and the Mice') (a writing generally recognized in antiquity as of pacifist intent) to the same person (Homēros) as the Iliad, was an indication of widespread regard in antiquity of the Iliad as having been composed by pacifists.

Ancient Hebrew

The accounts of wholesale massacre of the indigenous population of Knaʕan (Canaan) by invaders under the command of Yhôšuwaʕ (Joshua) may have been intended to produce an internal revulsion in its readers.

Ancient Christian

Likewise, the Christian Gospels (based on novelistic accounts of a caricature-character, Yēšuwaʕ / Iēsous / Jesus, allusively named for the same Yhôšuwaʕ) are so filled with extreme descriptions (of torture, etc.) as to appear to have been intended as covert satire. John Dominic Crossan has suggested various passages in the Gospels as likely instances of political satire. His and the views of F. Gerald Downing and of Burton Mack to this effect have often been discussed.<ref>e.g., in Chapter 3 ("Jesus the Itinerant Cynic Philosopher") of Ben Witherington III : The Jesus Quest.</ref> (The humorous and ironic content of the New Testament has sometimes been broadly described.<ref>e.g., Jakob Jónnson : Humour and Irony in the New Testament. Reykjavík, 1965.</ref>) Later, there was "extensive influence of the Cynic diatribe" on Byzantine sermons.<ref>Donald R. Dudley : A History of Cynicism. Methuen & Co Ltd, London, 1937. p. 207</ref> Because the Septuagint (version of the Tnak used by Christians) agrees by far more closely with the Ŝamaritan than with the Yhūdî (Jewish) text of the scriptures, it is abundantly evidently that the New Testament is of Ŝamaritan provenience : the original political context for the writing of the Synoptic Gospels would seem to be a Ŝamaritan intent (as of 70 Chr.E.) to satirize the decision by politicians in Galīl (Galilaia / Galilee) to join themselves with Yhūdāh (Ioudaia / Judea) in violently combating the Hellenes and the Roman government (army of Vespasiānus). The format of these Gospels is to indicate that despite such alliance, the differences in detail between the religious practices in Galīl and Yhūdāh were so great that the religious officials (known to be sticklers for details in rituals) in Yhūdāh would actually be eager to condemn to death any religious official (the part played by Yēšuwaʕ / Iēsous) sent from Galīl to Yhūdāh (even if these Yhūdî religious officials had to use Roman civil officials at carry out the execution!). Whereas the Cynic content of expressions in the Euaŋgelion kata Iōannēs (Gospel according to John) is manifest in such passages as "my kingdom is not of this world" (18:36)<ref>the Cynic philosopher's "kingdom is not of worldly things." (Donald R. Dudley : A History of Cynicism. Methuen & Co Ltd, London, 1937. p. 129)</ref>; yet nevertheless the political context of this Gospel would have been different and later (than that of the Synoptics) -- the passage in which "the coat was without seam" (19:23) is an allusion to the one-piece body-fitting garment (so sewn that unused cloth is gathered within) worn by Zaraθustrian priests, so that the occasion of composition of this Gospel will have the widespread revolt brought about (120 Chr.E.) by sympathizers with the Persian government at the apex of the invasion of Mesopotamia by the army of Traiānus.<ref>this dating is used, e.g., by Keim : History of Jesus. 1867. cited in :- F. Godet : Commentary on the Gospel of John. translated by Timothy Wright. New York, 1886. p. 15 http://www.archive.org/stream/commentaryonjohn01godeuoft/commentaryonjohn01godeuoft_djvu.txt</ref>

Ancient Hindu

The pacifist inclination of Hindu religious scriptures generally is quite widely accepted within India. Wherever warfare is mentioned in purportedly historical scriptures (Itihāsa) with specious praise, one can expect to find much elaborate covert satire in such narratives. An example would be the description in the Mahābhārata of Acyuta Kṛṣṇa as having, after affiliating his own army with that of the Kaurava-s, he became personal attendant to the Pāṇḍava (the Pāṇḍava-s were the adversaries of the Kaurava-s) military commander Arjuna : this description would be intended as a satire of the obtuse stupidity of military commanders who cannot recognize a spy among their personal confidantes. When, in the story, Arjuna rouses himself to the slight degree of intent to test the loyalty of Acyuta Kṛṣṇa by claiming a wish to retire from the military as a conscientious objector (so that if Acyuta Kṛṣṇa should fall for this bait by encouraging such retirement, Acyuta Kṛṣṇa could be recognized as a disloyal spy), this intent to so test loyalty is extremely easily dissipated by Acyuta Kṛṣṇa's cunning peroration to Arjuna to continue participating in the war (such peroration being the craftily-constructed mock-religious Bhagavat-Gītā, wherein Acyuta Kṛṣṇa easily dupes Arjuna by the disingenous ruse of pretending -- on the spur of the moment -- to be the Supreme Deity who cannot tell an untruth). (Also, "satire" has been suspected in other passages of the Mahābhārata.<ref>e.g., Promatha Nath Mullick : The Mahabharata : a Critical Study. 1934. p. 446</ref>)




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