Full Frontal Critique

Yesterday, P alerted me to the news that The New Yorker had published a satirical image of Barack Obama and Michelle Obama on its most recent cover. Given The New Yorker's reputation for publishing images of political satire, I wasn't necessarily surprised until I saw the image (see below). Aptly titled "The Politics of Fear" it quite literally put me in my seat. As some of you may know, I have been writing about how America thrives on a culture of fear, encouraging its citizens to expel threatening images or messages (or people) when they come into close proximity with our bodies and borders. My interest has been explaining how phishing solicitations make insidiously subtle references to 9/11 to get people to give up their sensitive identity information to expel the "cyberterrorists" and restore security. There is nothing subtle about this, though. Full frontal fear, staring right at you.

Not surprisingly, the entire country is on fire. John McCain has denounced the cover saying that he would understand if Barack Obama was offended. And, of course, the Obama camp has called it distasteful. I think it is brilliant. No, it is not funny. No it is not meant to be funny. Like Borat, this image confronts America with its racial prejudices, identifies several of its deepest held fears (notice the burning flag in the fireplace), and doesn't blink. To me, it is similar to when my favorite comedian Daniel Tosh rails on midwesterners for their lack of culture while he performs in the midwest. As he says, (paraphrasing) "and yes I tell that joke in Omaha, and I stare at them while I tell it."

see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANsQ0s5wdck

Too bad people are going to get all liberal (or conservative) about this and never let it shake their bones. That Obama sparks this kind of thinking is, in my view, worth voting him into office. For what it's worth, I think Hilary Clinton would have forced us to confront a similar type of fear.

Maybe instead of producing fear all the time, we should try to confront it and work through it. No, that's entirely too sensible.