Octopus & Propaganda

I've just looked again at Phil's last posted image and been struck by the appearance of the Churchillopus's mouth. The thick, red lips must have been a conscious choice, perhaps intended to make the viewer think of racist caricatures of Africans. Winston is even wearing blackface. Was it meant to suggest that England's presence in Africa had somehow "polluted" the colonizers? I think this illo is quite insane, actually.

:-/
 

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"What an appetite!" I've no date of publication for this illustration, athough the styles of dress on the figures and the color printing peg it as late Nineteenth or early Twentieth Century. It's a French cartoon depicting the Brotherhood of Freemasons as an octopus corrupting a myriad of societal functionaries: magistrates, clergy and police, among others. (The caption is somewhat illegible to me, you folks might have better luck.)

Rue Cadet is a Parisian street that is home to a venerable Masonic temple. The odd pot on the octopus's head could be seen as a smelting cauldron. Metalworking and metalworking symbols are part of Masonic work and ritual, deriving largely from Biblical accounts of the construction of King Solomon's temple. Then again, cartoonists have long used pots worn as crowns to indicate an illegitimate authority.

Cheers,

Clem
 

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The image posted below has been gathering pixel dust in my scrapbook for a while now, and it was a recent newspaper item that finally provided the impetus to post it and write some words as accompaniment. This year marks the 60th Anniversary of the end of the Second World War, and a contingent of American veterans, mostly Marines, made a recent pilgrimage to the site of one of the war's most ghastly battles, Operation Detachment, on the Pacific island of Iwo Jima.

Securing Iwo Jima was of critical importance to the American strategic bombing campaign underway against the Japanese mainland; positioned halfway between the B-29 bases in the Marianas and Japan proper, Iwo would eventually serve as a base for escorting fighters and an emergency landing field for bombers in distress. A crippled B-29 landed on Iwo scant weeks after the battle had begun.

The battle raged from February 19, 1945 to March 26. Soft volcanic sand slowed the progress of men and machines, black lava rock provided deep cover for the defenders and a heavy smell of sulphur nauseated all. By any measure, it was a hellish fight. Over one-third of the Marines who took part in the invasion became casualties: 28,686 killed, wounded or incapacitated out of an available force of 70,000. The casualty ratio among the defending Japanese was much higher: out of 27,000 defenders, over 20,000 were killed, with slightly over 1,000 surviving to become prisoners of war. Japanese soldiers on Iwo Jima were so securely embedded in their defensive positions - caves, lava tubes and ravines - that the Marines resorted to extreme measures to drive them out, including the use of flame throwers.

In a different time, and a different war, such measures would have been considered barbaric. The psychological ground had already been prepared, though. Both sides had so thoroughly dehumanized the other, in speech and images, that few measures were considered extreme. The United States Marines, a 1943 comic book published by William H. Wise, depicts "A Leatherneck Flame Thrower" torching a grotesque Japanese octopus bearing the likeness of Hideki Tojo, Japan's wartime Prime Minister. The comic's cover image accomplishes two goals: it encourages American children to regard their enemies as animals, and to accept the use of flame throwers in combat.

To view an online timetable of the battle for Iwo Jima, the source for the dates and casualty figures noted, click here.

Clem
 

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Inspired Madness/Greatness!!!!! Especially love the "crypto" one...
author, author!!!!
 
Hello Folks,

During the past year, this esoteric and serious thread of ours has, somehow, become the most viewed in the Culture & Entertainment forum. I've got some newish finds to contribute during the coming year, and I hope you all have some surprises in store, too.

Here's two in the eye of ignorance.

:glass:

Cheers,
Clem
 

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