A reflection on the uses of irony from Greek philosophy to the hyperconnected society.

A defense of mass public conversation.

Since the introduction of the Internet, the new public sphere has been accused of a harmful excess of irony. A melancholic discomfort against irony seems to return. Is irony a threat to public life at any time? Or is there something particular about our time that facilitates its expansion? This essay unravels the relationship between irony and the current "mass public conversation", beginning by recovering the political meaning that irony had in its origin, Greek democracy. From there, it traces a journey through the history of irony that goes from Socrates to David Foster Wallace, passing through Sören Kierkegaard and Richard Rorty, to show its unique character as an antidote and paradigm to the evils of public conversation.