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| Political cartoons, trivial and inconsequential? I think not | Political cartoons, trivial and inconsequential? I think not |
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| In our post-ideological, media-saturated world of 24/7 news and social media, politics has come to more closely resemble a down-market soap opera rather than a national grand narrative. Personality, conflict and confected crises have displaced the deeper purpose of politics leaving us with little more than an empty shadow play. While political cartoonists, with their grotesque caricatures and scatological humour, are well placed to make the most of this unedifying spectacle, the best of them offer far more than gratuitous piss-taking, and use their licence to offend to examine some of the deeper currents and pathologies of our culture. | In our post-ideological, media-saturated world of 24/7 news and social media, politics has come to more closely resemble a down-market soap opera rather than a national grand narrative. Personality, conflict and confected crises have displaced the deeper purpose of politics leaving us with little more than an empty shadow play. While political cartoonists, with their grotesque caricatures and scatological humour, are well placed to make the most of this unedifying spectacle, the best of them offer far more than gratuitous piss-taking, and use their licence to offend to examine some of the deeper currents and pathologies of our culture. |
| Despite the often-repeated claim that political cartoonists are all romantic left-wingers, they are intrinsically neither left nor right. But it is true that the most insightful are an expression of an authentic ethical voice, for, like all satire, this is a militant art in search of an enemy. Bruce Petty, certainly a man of the left, has never shirked engagement with complex or abstract ideas in his cartoons. As well as government, his beat has always included the intricacies of the financial system and the power of big business — the unacknowledged legislators of the globalised 21st century. | Despite the often-repeated claim that political cartoonists are all romantic left-wingers, they are intrinsically neither left nor right. But it is true that the most insightful are an expression of an authentic ethical voice, for, like all satire, this is a militant art in search of an enemy. Bruce Petty, certainly a man of the left, has never shirked engagement with complex or abstract ideas in his cartoons. As well as government, his beat has always included the intricacies of the financial system and the power of big business — the unacknowledged legislators of the globalised 21st century. |
| Religion 2007 (above) is a superbly crafted image published on the eve of the global financial crisis, when faith in the global market was unalloyed and belief in its ability to correct its own excesses still intact. For Petty, our notions of the functioning of the market have gone way beyond Adam Smith's "invisible hand" to become the great metaphysical truth of the era — as unchallengeable as any religious fundamentalism. It is a brilliantly prescient cartoon capturing the mood of the period and the operation of its ruling ideology. | Religion 2007 (above) is a superbly crafted image published on the eve of the global financial crisis, when faith in the global market was unalloyed and belief in its ability to correct its own excesses still intact. For Petty, our notions of the functioning of the market have gone way beyond Adam Smith's "invisible hand" to become the great metaphysical truth of the era — as unchallengeable as any religious fundamentalism. It is a brilliantly prescient cartoon capturing the mood of the period and the operation of its ruling ideology. |
| From "children overboard" to the more recent asylum seeker drownings, the issue of refugees has inspired some extraordinary cartoons. For a wealthy first world country, people seeking protection from persecution should present no more than a minor administrative problem. | From "children overboard" to the more recent asylum seeker drownings, the issue of refugees has inspired some extraordinary cartoons. For a wealthy first world country, people seeking protection from persecution should present no more than a minor administrative problem. |
| Yet it has been consistently elevated into a national security issue by the Coalition's willingness to exploit populist fears. Crikey's First Dog on the Moon (above), with his child-friendly marsupial commentator, illustrates the evolution of a public discourse with all its sophistry, triteness and confected empathy confronting us with some extremely unpleasant truths about ourselves: "such a terrible tragedy, but there is only so much one person can do." | Yet it has been consistently elevated into a national security issue by the Coalition's willingness to exploit populist fears. Crikey's First Dog on the Moon (above), with his child-friendly marsupial commentator, illustrates the evolution of a public discourse with all its sophistry, triteness and confected empathy confronting us with some extremely unpleasant truths about ourselves: "such a terrible tragedy, but there is only so much one person can do." |
| In a world profligate with real and fabricated images, the difference between entertainment and reportage has blurred, if not dissolved, and we have become increasingly habituated to their effect on us. But, as Geoff Pryor's response to the arguments justifying torture in the "war on terror" shows, a cartoon — a low-tech still — can have the immediacy and visceral power other forms of media have lost. | In a world profligate with real and fabricated images, the difference between entertainment and reportage has blurred, if not dissolved, and we have become increasingly habituated to their effect on us. But, as Geoff Pryor's response to the arguments justifying torture in the "war on terror" shows, a cartoon — a low-tech still — can have the immediacy and visceral power other forms of media have lost. |
| What had previously been unthinkable, and illegal, was made thinkable again by the specious but almost universally-held formula, "The bomb is ticking, do what you gotta do". Pryor takes us into a prison in a country of rendition with an Australian observer – the kind of good, solid cop we see in TV police procedurals. He is the guarantor that justice, if a little rough, will be served. "Interview suspended while subject has a drink of water", he says as torturers switch from electrodes to waterboarding. Instead of the crude ethical travesty suggested by cinematic last-minute attempts to save the innocent we are invited to look directly at the slow and deliberate bureaucratic infliction of suffering, absolved by a patina of due process. With the West becoming inured to the reality of torture done in its name, this was one of the more powerful cartoons to have come out of the "war on terror". | What had previously been unthinkable, and illegal, was made thinkable again by the specious but almost universally-held formula, "The bomb is ticking, do what you gotta do". Pryor takes us into a prison in a country of rendition with an Australian observer – the kind of good, solid cop we see in TV police procedurals. He is the guarantor that justice, if a little rough, will be served. "Interview suspended while subject has a drink of water", he says as torturers switch from electrodes to waterboarding. Instead of the crude ethical travesty suggested by cinematic last-minute attempts to save the innocent we are invited to look directly at the slow and deliberate bureaucratic infliction of suffering, absolved by a patina of due process. With the West becoming inured to the reality of torture done in its name, this was one of the more powerful cartoons to have come out of the "war on terror". |
| At their most effective, political cartoons are condensed visual arguments capable of stripping away the insidious and mind-numbing fabrications of political spin to confronting us with penetrating insights about the workings of our world. Whether this type of satire changes minds is moot – but trivial or inconsequential? I think not. | At their most effective, political cartoons are condensed visual arguments capable of stripping away the insidious and mind-numbing fabrications of political spin to confronting us with penetrating insights about the workings of our world. Whether this type of satire changes minds is moot – but trivial or inconsequential? I think not. |
| • Russ Radcliffe is the editor of Dirt Files: a decade of Best Australian Political Cartoons | • Russ Radcliffe is the editor of Dirt Files: a decade of Best Australian Political Cartoons |
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