montanadave
09-03-14, 18:37
An entertaining interview with cartoonist Pat Oliphant, who has been skewering both American politicians and the American public for half a century: http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/09/legendary-cartoonist-pat-oliphant-we-are-in-a-forest-fire-of-ignorance/379524/?single_page=true
Some of his comments lament the failures of print journalism to fulfill their societal obligation to subject our political leadership and public policies to unswerving scrutiny. But he also takes the American public to task, most notably for their lack of appreciation of history and the deleterious impact that ignorance has on our collective ability to understand not only the issues that confront this nation but the potentially disastrous consequences of many of our "solutions."
Such historical and cultural ignorance makes the job of a political cartoonist particularly difficult.
There’s another important factor: education. The frames of reference have disappeared. You have to have a frame of reference to appreciate a cartoon, to know what is being caricatured. People don’t do the reading of news anymore that would give them the background to know what the cartoon is about; you can’t refer to accepted wisdom or variations of accepted wisdom. We are in a forest fire of ignorance.
A "forest fire of ignorance." And we wonder why we're always getting burned. :rolleyes:
Some of his comments lament the failures of print journalism to fulfill their societal obligation to subject our political leadership and public policies to unswerving scrutiny. But he also takes the American public to task, most notably for their lack of appreciation of history and the deleterious impact that ignorance has on our collective ability to understand not only the issues that confront this nation but the potentially disastrous consequences of many of our "solutions."
Such historical and cultural ignorance makes the job of a political cartoonist particularly difficult.
There’s another important factor: education. The frames of reference have disappeared. You have to have a frame of reference to appreciate a cartoon, to know what is being caricatured. People don’t do the reading of news anymore that would give them the background to know what the cartoon is about; you can’t refer to accepted wisdom or variations of accepted wisdom. We are in a forest fire of ignorance.
A "forest fire of ignorance." And we wonder why we're always getting burned. :rolleyes: