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| Les dernières cartouches² Alphonse-Marie-Adolphe de Neuville, 1873 |
On the left of the painting is the world going effing mad. The chap just behind the shooters, leaning on the cabinet with the bandaged leg, seems interested in the goings on, but detached from them. He's watching the news, believes what he's seeing, but has no plan or desire to get involved or change anything.
The guy on the floor has given up, he can't believe the crap he's seeing, feels powerless to change anything, so he's just given up. That guy behind him, he's pissed off, he knows he can't change a damned thing, but he tried, and got burned for it.
That officer-looking fellow in the back room? Thinks he's doing his job, but the job he's doing makes no sense to anyone but him. He's contributing nothing, but damn he looks good doing it.
The guy leaning against the wall on the right? He's pissed off, he's detached, and has zero effs left to give.
Kinda like me.
Kid should get a blog.
¹ The current state of affairs in these here United States.
² The last cartridges. French snipers ambush Bavarian troops, hiding in the l'Auberge Bourgerie in Bazeilles, prior to the Battle of Sedan during the Franco-Prussian War in 1870.
Kid leaning against the wall is probably thinking, "If I had a grenade or a pistol, those arse-hats in the other room would be gone in 5 seconds."
ReplyDeleteGood synopsis of the painting. Funny how the people behind the front rank think everything is okay. Er, yeah, not so much. Concealment isn't cover as the saying goes.
And the guy with the wounded leg would probably be forwarding memes to everyone he knows...
Ah Beans, you get me.
DeleteMy, someone gets cranky when the missus is away.
ReplyDeleteYup.
DeleteThe grandsons of those Marines would have to deal with Germany again come 1914.
ReplyDeleteAnd their great-grandsons in 1940.
DeleteThen PaxAmericana happened in Europe.
DeleteIndeed.
DeleteWhich we paid for with our hard earned tax dollars while some countries (cough, Germany, cough cough) slacked off and didn't meet their commitments...
DeleteThey still aren't doing so. (Die Deutscher ...)
DeleteSarge, what has been growing in my mind of late is the phrase "The individual with nothing to lose is the most dangerous individual of all". Continue to give people no reason to invest or build in the current paradigm, and suddenly such people will not longer support the paradigm - not necessarily through some act of violence, but the simple act of moving on. It is like that awkward moment when you think have built a consensus in your work or social group to confront something or someone and then at the confrontation, the entire group simply melts away. The reality is that they had no investment - not in your opinion or the other's opinion, but in the entire system at all. And you, as the "change agent", are left looking foolish and holding the bag.
ReplyDeleteThe commentary back usually is something like "But that is what "they" (the nebulous they) want". Possibly - but "they" are also counting that everything else will just continue on and "they" would end up on top. Modern society and economics is such a complicate animal that it can take a small series of events - say, disruptions in the supply chain (this is theory, of course) - to make societies unworkable.
Heh heh. 19th Century individuals with blogs. That would be a tremendous treat.
You've hit the nail on the head.
Delete(That would be a treat, the 19th Century blog.)
They had them. In America, during the Rev War, Committees of Correspondence. Other groups did the same, disseminating information (some good, some bad) through letters, through church meetings, through fraternal organizations and other groups. There were even people printing and posting evil memes, of course printing on paper and gluing the pages up on walls and anything slow moving.
DeleteTeh Interwebs just made it faster and easier.
As to 'The person with nothing to lose' concept, I've been waiting since Barky the Lightbringer's reign of terror for some old fart who has lost family and is now alone to go postal. Apparently so has the FedGov because they firmly believe that some old fart et al is much more of a threat than illegal immigrants, drug cartels, street gangs, Red China or Iran or the Norks or, well, just about anything else.
DeleteThat's it- "No investment in the system" or perhaps, no investment LEFT- Maybe people are walking away from their sunk costs.
DeleteBeans the 1st - Good point, they DID have them.
DeleteBeans the 2nd - Moi aussi ...
DeleteAnon - Another good point.
DeleteAnonymous - that is exactly my thought. In fact, it is where I find myself today. In something like 15 years I have gone from someone with some level of investment in the system to not caring if it continues in many ways. For any culture or society, such a development is not a healthy thing. In H.Beam Piper's Space Viking, two characters are talking about how societies fall apart. One, of course, is war. The other is settling out as people become less and less interested in keeping the civilization they have going.
DeleteThe book, if you have not read it, is one of the best political statements masquerading as a science fiction novel (as are many of Piper's works).
I'll have to track that down!
DeleteSomedays, I feel like I've gotten up and left the building. Today's my Uncle Woody's 99th birthday, Captain Robert D. Woodbury, USMC carrier aviator during WW2 and Korea, nightclub comedian, TV host, ... he's got a FB fan club page if you'd care to add to the greetings. His only movie, a 60's beach vs motorcycle thing, For Those Who Think Young, has him doing a cleaned up version of his nightclub act.
ReplyDeleteDang, "Woody" Woodbury's your uncle, that's pretty cool.
Delete(As to the "got up and left the building" thing, yes, that's exactly how it feels some days!)
Great analysis of an interesting piece of art. I don't have a clue what the artist was originally trying to depict, but your description certainly rings true to me.
ReplyDeleteKeep on sharing your amazing images. You always pick great ones for your stories, so you know your way around the virtual galleries. Share some more of your favorite, or just unusual discoveries. No need for a tale to go with them. Just throw some out as a sort of Rorschach test for the motley crew who show up here. Or ask visitors to do their own explanation, story, caption, or whatever in 200 words or fewer.
Now, go do whatever the cat tells you.
John Blackshoe
Wikipedia notes "Hermann Rorschach was a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst. His education in art helped to spur the development of a set of inkblots that were used experimentally to measure various unconscious parts of the subject's personality."
Now that sounds like a capital idea. Stay tuned!
DeleteAnd deeply troubling analysees coming in 3... 2... 1....
Deletejuvat will say everything looks like a target.
LL will say everything looks like the aftermath of targeting.
scottthebadger will say everything looks like the aftermath of a hung-over badger.
and so on and so forth...
Heh, now I'm really excited!
DeleteAnd I'll go off on a 5 page rant about modern art.
DeleteOr just repeat, "An inkblot on a folded piece of paper."
DeleteRe: the last. Yes, I have said that when talking to a shrink. Pissed him off to no end. Makes me wonder what was wrong with him that he could see something in an inkblot.
Delete5 page rant? Yes, please!
Delete"An inkblot on a folded piece of paper." Heh.
DeleteSometimes a cigar ...
Delete(I may have posted this before) The original Mercury astronauts were put through every medical and psychological test the docs could think of. One was being given the Rorschach test. In the pack of ink blots is a blank white sheet as a control. The astronaut studied it carefully, then said "but it's upside down". The shrink looked at it himself and turned it around. Gotcha!
DeleteBrilliant!
DeleteCrusty Old TV Tech here. And Crusty will say it belongs on the wall in some BAOR regimental headquarters somewhere...or, it looks like an antenna. All I ever see in those ink blots is antennas.
ReplyDeleteStands to reason. 😎
DeleteSometimes I feel like the dead guy in rigor, behind the no effs guy!
ReplyDeleteOh yeah.
Delete