CSotD: Cartooning in This Best of All Possible Worlds
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First, an announcement: Enough time has now passed that it is no longer a coincidence to depict Donald Trump as a butcher who hacked an elephant into pieces.
Stop it.
Besides, David Horsey appears here too often for my fair-use comfort level, for which reason I wish someone else had made this excellent historic parallel, because I can hardly ignore it.
In high school, we were taught — both in World History and in Latin — that a major reason for the fall of the Roman Empire was that, in order to boost military enlistments and forestall rebellions, Rome offered citizenship to veterans, which sounded pretty good except that it opened things up to the Vandals and Goths and Visigoths and other barbaric hordes that eventually undermined the fundamental principles of the Empire.
I honestly can't recall if, when we read Livy and Gibbon in college, they downplayed that aspect, but I certainly don't remember them completely refuting it, and I think, given how it was drummed into our heads in high school, I'd have taken notice.
In any case, you can't gain the rights and privileges of a citizen here quite that easily.
And we've already seen in the 2004 elections that even veterans who are multi-generational citizens get slimed by the modern barbarians if they dare to line up on the wrong side.
I do remember reading about the crime rate in Rome getting to a stage where they simply closed the gates at night after the "decent folks" had gone to their suburban homes, and then hauled off the dead in the morning when the inner city was once more opened for business. (I think that was Gibbon.)
No doubt that could have been avoided if everyone had carried swords.
Whatever the specifics of the parallel, Trump has risen to prominence by appealing to those who believe that immigrant families who work hard, pay taxes and behave particularly well for fear of being discovered to not have papers, are the barbarians we should fear.
And that the fault is with (Kenyan-born) Obama, who pleaded with the GOP-led Senate to pass the Immigration Reform Act already passed in the House, but faced only the stonewall of refusal with which they have opposed every reform, even those their own party had originally proposed.
And that the solution to that and all other problems is to destroy the Bill of Rights, ignore the Constitution and otherwise solve our problems by rejecting the fundamental values upon which the Republic was founded, all the while proclaiming our love of country.
The fall of the Roman Empire in the West is generally pegged as occurring at the point at which the last Roman emperor stepped down, or, more precisely, the point at which the first barbarian was handed the crown by that last Roman, not with a bang but a whimper.
And to the cheers of his supporting horde, proud citizens all.
Elsewhere in this collapsing universe
Malaysian cartoonist Zulkiflee Anwar Haque (Zunar), and Kenyan-based Tanzanian cartoonist Godffrey Mwampembwa (Gado) are sharing the 2016 International Editorial Cartoons Prize from the Cartooning for Peace Swiss Foundation.
Gado — one of Africa's best-known cartoonists — was terminated, apparently (though his former employer won't confirm it), over a cartoon criticizing Tanzania's then-president, while Zunar's in-and-out-of-prison career and legal wranglings have been a frequent topic of international conversation among cartoonists.
In presenting the award, honorary president Kofi Annan said
Gado and Zunar remind us how fragile this liberty remains in Africa and in Asia as well as in other regions of the world. Through their commitment towards open and transparent societies, Gado and Zunar, who have received threats in their countries of origin and can no longer practice their profession, confront us with our responsibility to preserve freedom of expression and act in order to support the combat of those who cannot express themselves through their art.
And Zunar himself, certainly one of the most cheerful and unrepentent sayers-of-that-which-must-not-be-said, told the press
Talent is not a gift, but a responsibility. It is a duty for me as a cartoonist to use the art as a weapon to fight unjust rulers. Fear and intimidation are the potent tools being used by the regime to scare the people. I also strongly believe that, when faced with a moral crisis, there is no room to grumble in silence. We have to stand up and cry our voice out loud and clear. Neutrality is escapism for those who live in a comfort zone.
Meanwhile, in this country, the firing of Iowa cartoonist Rick Friday for annoying a seed dealer by pointing out the poor economics of farming, is drawing some attention from both the remnants of the professional journalism press and the mainstream media.
However, I doubt Friday's firing will have anywhere near the impact in this country that the plights of Zunar and Gado have in theirs, since those things are happening in Bad Third World Repressive Places while Friday lives in the Land of Freedom, where Everything Is Just As It Should Be.
Or at least it will be, as soon as we win our war against East Asia Eurasia East Asia Eurasia the Enemy.
Now here's your moment of zen
"Ah, but in such an ugly time, the true protest is beauty" — Phil Ochs
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