Rusted Sky

An artist tries to provoke a reaction. So does a propagandist. However, it's not all all certain that the propagandist will be able to get the desired reaction, unless the audience is conditioned beforehand. And this 'art/propaganda' exhibit... well, it provoked an emotional reaction - but likely not the one expected.

Anti-American July 4th

July 4th in San Francisco. So many things to do!

Picture 5 - well, these folks haven't a clue about the military in the first place, so what could you really expect. Picture 7 - yep, clueless as hell about US history, and stupid to boot. Picture 11 - you ever wonder just WHY Capitalism has such a bad rap? It's because the Communist economies had a hell of time feeding their own people - so since Communism was perfect, anything less had to be worse. This looks more like what you'd expect from a Communist economy, to my thinking. For all the bitching about it, capitalism's done more for the average Joe than any other economic system.

Which brings me to picture 12. "Capitalism is suicide!" You know, I'd love to see just how much a joker who generated this on a computer (developed by capitalists) and printed it out either on his home printer (developed by capitalists) or at a local Kinkos' - (developed and RUN by capitalists) would like being in a society where the simple ownership of an unlicensed typewriter would be sufficent cause for years of prison or a death sentence. And what he'd replace capitalism with that would provide for him better.

And this one... Number 13. Wow.

Number 13. You've GOT to laugh at this one. Big busty babes, zepellins, tanks - and the Red Star over all with a call for Rebellion. God, what goes through the mind of an artist that would produce something like this? It makes me wonder just how much support those fools calling for rebellion really expect, or is it a masturbatory exercise in self-delusion? (Considering the appearnce of the BBBabes, likely the latter.) Things are VERY good right now for the majority of people in the US, especially compared to what they might have 'when the Revolution comes'. Where do they think the incentive to overthrow the US government for some nebulous 'better' system (to be determined later) would come from? You've either got to have a LOT of people really dissatisfied with their lot, to the point where ANYTHING seems better than what they've got, or have a hell of a lot of charisma to persuade them to follow your lead. And so far, the folks on the left don't seem to have it, charisma-wise. (Witness the flaming failure of Air America...)

But I'm sure the artist had a good time 'working' on this poster. (Eww.) It's well done, for it's type. Pornographic in it's own way, with a nice promise of pneumatic goodies. 72 virgins, anyone? They're waiting, boys! Join the Rebellion today!

Something else odd...

Many of the posters were actually from Iran itself. And most were so "official"-seeming, so professionally crafted, it dawned on me that these entries were either designed and submitted by the government of Iran, or at the very least vetted and approved by the Iranian government, which apparently must have heard about a crazy American art exhibit in which there would be no curator, and decided to take advantage of the situation.

The organizers ended up getting more than they bargained for: they wanted artists to submit pseudo-propaganda, but what they got was real propaganda!

Oh, the irony of it all.

J.