What Hitler Wants
I have a thing for World War II propaganda cartoons. To me they show the kind of perversions a society has to go through in order to engage in war (even those with a just cause). One must totally denigrate the enemy so that they are no longer seen as human. But there is more; there is a kind of liberation theology always involved, but, unlike authentic Christian liberation theology, it is all humanistic, Promethean, making gods out of humanity as they seek to create utopia on earth. This, to me, is what is behind all forms of nationalistic exceptionalism.
Without surprise, I find both of these qualities best expressed in this series of cartoons from the USSR.
What do you make of these cartoons? What is your reaction to this and similar propaganda?
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Personally, I think the modern equivalent is found in politics, where political candidates (and their supporters) have to dehumanize and vilify their opponent, making people afraid of what they would do if in power, while making a god-like presentation of their own (and it is for this reason I found it odd that people criticized Obama for this, when it was also being done, maybe in a more subtle fashion, by McCain).
There is a certain irony in that the communists did steal the grain of the communal farms when they withheld it because the price was too low. They also of course engaged in mass killings.
I loved the last one though, the handshake between England and Russia.
Hooray for the Popular Front!!!!
I guess the Soviets should have just called Hitler a “Calvinist” at let it go at that.
Henry,
Why not criticize Obama for doing it? Why not criticize them both.
Magdalena
There are a couple things — first, those who were criticizing Obama for it seemed not to be concerned with their own political candidate for doing it. It seemed to me, therefore, their horror of Obama doing it was superficial. This, of course, follows with the second observation: what was claimed of Obama as if he were making himself a messiah was way overboard in how it was handled. He was not doing what the rhetoric was suggesting. While there is an aspect of Prometheus in all political rhetoric (and one should note it, as I did here), I am also pointing out what was left unstated previously: McCain’s rhetoric was the same. Just go back and watch his “Man in the Arena” commercial. It’s his “Yes, We Can.” And it’s very much the super-human Prometheus involved with it, and yet this was not mentioned by his supporters — which, if they were interested in rejecting such claims, they would have done so with him as well.
If political hacks (an honorable vocation, in my mind) are a little strident in their statements, I don’t think this is a great sin. The civic harm is when hackery dominates the whole conversation.
Second, hackery is troubling in any degree when it is clothed in religion. It is troubling because of the harm it does to religion.
Third, I don’t find great fault in motivational wartime propaganda when faced with the very real evil of international fascism. It is often forgotten that there was significant political support on the Right for appeasement, isolationism, neutrality and fellow travelerism during the rise of fascism. The country and the West was not as united as often believed nowdays.
I suppose if you’re going to tell a story in which you are the Savior, it helps to depict those who oppose to you as demonic.
That’s true, Kyle. But a dry, balanced, unemotional, footnoted and even-handed analysis of the virtues and vices of the Axis vs. the Popular Front has its problems as well. For me, I loved the film!