Satire Without Systems: What Sinclair Lewis (and Hawkeye from MASH Types) Don’t Understand

by John-Michael Kuczynski

There’s a kind of literary pose that never goes out of style: the smug, knowing intellectual skewering the hapless, bourgeois square. Think Hawkeye Pierce ridiculing Frank Burns. Think Sinclair Lewis sneering at Babbitt. Think any smart kid in the back of the class chuckling at the teacher’s necktie.

But here’s the thing: the satire falls apart if you don’t understand the system you’re mocking.

The Blind Spot of the Smart Set

Writers like Lewis often portray middle-class work as inherently absurd: real estate deals, boosterism, commerce, insurance, mortgage brokering. It’s all portrayed as shallow theater.

But none of it could exist without:

• Capital flows

• Risk underwriting

• Legal frameworks

• Infrastructure coordination

• And actual knowledge of how economies work

And these writers often don’t have that knowledge. Which is fine—until they start scoffing at the people who do.

The Babbitt Problem

Babbitt is a windbag. Sure. He talks too much, tries too hard, craves approval.But he also occupies a place in the real machinery of civilization.

• He helps allocate space.

• He facilitates growth.

• He’s a node in a network of economic translation.

Lewis doesn’t see that—because he never bothers to. To him, Babbitt is a type, not a participant. A clown, not a component.

Which is why the satire rings hollow: you can’t mock what you don’t understand.

The Frank Burns Problem

Hawkeye Pierce, smart and morally self-assured, is clearly the hero. But watch closely: Frank Burns may be cowardly, conservative, and self-important—but he follows procedure. He keeps the system running. And for all his faults, he works.

Hawkeye mocks the machinery. But it’s the machinery that makes surgery possible.

Satire Without Respect = Superficiality

If you don’t understand:

• How housing markets work,

• What banks actually do,

• Or what a zoning board even is,

…you’re not writing critique. You’re just doing stand-up.

That’s what a lot of highbrow literary mockery boils down to:

Laughter from people who’ve never had to fix the plumbing.

Conclusion

There’s plenty to criticize in the middle class, in commerce, in bureaucracy. But if you want your satire to bite, you need to know what you’re biting into.

Otherwise, you’re not satirizing a system.You’re just mocking a guy for wearing a tie and showing up to work.