On "Dunking On"

Dunking has its place. On the basketball court most aesthetically and kinetically, at the kitchen table with Oreos and milk most deliciously, and online most crudely and pervasively. This last instance is one of not mere dunking but “dunking on”: a form of public mockery made infectious and viral due to Twitter’s “quote tweet” feature and screenshots.

Perversely these attempts to “call out” the cruel, insipid, ignorant, or just plain odd serve only to elevate them. Attention in our information age is its own reward. It is easier to leverage, monetize, and weaponize than ever. What Swami Vivekananda once observed about the entanglements of life plays out in unending variants online:

“We came here to sip the honey, and we find our hands and feet sticking to it. We are caught, though we came to catch. We came to enjoy; we are being enjoyed. We came to rule; we are being ruled. We came to work; we are being worked.”