US | The Art Of "The Politics of Fear"

0 Flares 0 Flares ×

 

The New Yorker July 2001, 2006

 

By Shahnaz Habib

Last week, the New Yorker cover proved that to reveal how ludicrous right wing propaganda is, you don’t have to do anything except pile it on top of itself. But the satire did not stop there. In the tradition of the cleverest satire, the cover used “outrage” as a tool to play with our perceptions of who we think ourselves to be, and what we consider funny.

A few years ago on a gorgeous October morning in New York, I was walking down Crosby street and happened to pass by  Housing Works Used Book Cafe. Glancing at their store window, I was shocked to find a copy of Ann Coulter’s book “How to Talk to a Liberal (If You Must)” displayed proudly in this haven of progressive thought. What??? How could Housing Works Used Book Cafe want to sell Ann Coulter? What was the world coming to? I fumed inside. I wanted to throw up. Then I stepped back to look at the larger picture (literally) and found that Ann Coulter’s book was the centerpiece of an elaborate window display of horror novels and vampire erotica. Finally the penny dropped. The day was October 31st, Halloween in New York.

The New Yorker cover is that moment all over again for me. There are two different but parallel processes happening here – first there is the political point the cover/shop window is scoring. But, secondly, there is the joke on the viewer/reader. The joke is not just on those who are anti-Obama, the joke is also on you, and me, who are so serious and earnest about these elections, and quick to take offense. And that is okay! Why not laugh at myself? Why not laugh at how tightly wound-up this election has made all of us?

Many of us for whom art and social change are indivisible tend to turn polemical when politics is on the table. Let’s get over ourselves. A cartoon is not going to kill Obama, who has withstood a high blood-pressure primary with tenacity and charm and cunning strategy.

In many ways, Obama has raised the tenor of America’s national political discourse by opening up risky conversations and introducing an element of articulateness that has been sadly missing in the last eight years of Bushisms. Satire and poetry and irony and multi-layered speech are returning very, very slowly to American campaigns politics after years of ‘us versus them’ discourse. Let’s welcome this change with open arms. And let’s take our helping of art and social change with a side of humor.

0 Flares Facebook 0 Twitter 0 0 Flares ×

Comments are closed.

0 Flares Facebook 0 Twitter 0 0 Flares ×