Gondola

Gondola is the silent walker. Having no hands he embodies the Taoist principle of wu-wei (non-action), while his smiling facial expression shows his utter and complete acceptance of the world as it is. A pure observer of the world around him, this token and its holders embody those principles. In this way, Gondola is delicate but incorruptible. An ‘edgy Gondola’ is just an arm less Spurdo. Gondola is a feeling that comes from the tenderness of the heart we might call a New Naivete: the earnest, childlike understanding that it’s OK to simply feel things, happy or sad. It is a brave, self-aware vulnerability only possible for those who know the loneliness of self-deceit. Gondola is a paradigm of this Post-Irony, just as Wojak’s depression and Pepe’s cynicism were each a paradigm of the Mainstream’s Pre-Irony and the Underground’s Irony. It’s the golden mean between the shallow narcissism of the Mainstream and the desperate cynicism of the Underground. From the disrupted balance between Feel and Frog came the death of Pepe, but we endured Meta-Irony’s trial by fire, and found hope of reconciliation. Pepe lives on through Gondola in the form of this hope.