Numerian offered an interesting (if too forgiving) take on Jon, always the right-wing concern troll in centrist clothing, Meacham’s latest frontpage charade. But what concerned me most was not so much the article, which isn’t entirely horrible, but the cover image and what it communicates.
Keep in mind that Newsweek’s covers reach a huge segment of the population in contrast to the number of actual magazine readers. Despite an ever deeper shift towards digital information, Newsweek covers remain a dominant feature of our daily visual culture. Millions and millions of eyeballs glance these images daily at grocery stores, airports, public street corners and private waiting rooms. And Newsweek has been on a role lately.
Without digging too deep into our bag of semiotic analytical tools, the blood red cross suspended against a solid, pitch black background no doubt will evoke different meanings for different readers.
But the black, which could represent; the abyss, the apocalypse, or perhaps even Obama, doesn’t inspire much, “gee, I think its a good thing America is becoming a post-Christian nation.” Is the red not just symbolic of the blood of Christ but the blood of Christian Americans sacrificed to the new “secular liberal order?” The text of “Christian America” is crushed under the weight of the “DECLINE.” Might the arrangement of the text then also suggest that it’s not only Christian America but America in general which will be consumed in darkness? Christianity under siege? A call for action?
What do you see (and feel) when presented with this image?
UPDATE: Lesson learned. If something seems either completely uncharacteristic or to good to be true, save it immediately. The NYT removed the image as I was writing this post. I was still able to find the thumbnail, which is not helpful to my analysis. Damn, live and learn.
We need policies that grow our economy from the bottom-up, so that every American, everywhere has the chance to get ahead. Not just corporate CEOs, but their secretaries too. Not just the person who owns the factory, but the men and women who work on its floor. Because if we’ve learned anything from this economic crisis, it’s that we’re all connected; we’re all in this together; and we will rise or fall as one nation – as one people.
This has become standard Obama rhetoric on the campaign stump during the past weeks. What one senses, and consistently reads throughout the press, is that American style free market economic hegemony is over. Obama also speaks directly to “failed ideologies” and the farce of “trickle-down economics.”
This photo AP photo currency leads the New York Times online edition (approximately Sunday, 2am Eastern). Here’s a photograph which communicates far more than the boilerplate images of Wall Street long faces, Middle Class house foreclosures or plummeting stock prices. The caption reads, “Coal miners at work near Coulterville, Ill. Natural resources mutual funds tumbled in the third quarter.” This is the only mention of workers in this article about stocks, commodities, and GDP. But visually, there’s more than one story. See the secondary photograph here.
UPDATE 2: This image doesn’t come close to the original. However, I thought it was still important, if not tepid, as workers do still provide a visual counter-narrative.
The interior of the mine shaft stands in as a metaphor for the economy. Someone with mining knowledge could no doubt offer an explanation of what’s taking place. But from my viewpoint, the situation looks precarious. The artistic style of the composition reinforces a worker heroism ethos. Socialist realism comes to mind. The men could easily be proudly embracing red flags instead of mining equipment. This is not unlike a scene from a Diego Rivera. The two miners stoically hold a teetering economy, which should it cave, will bury them and the working class alive.
During this latest “financial crisis” there have been some fascinating images which communicate possible alternative narratives to the daily press stories. The image above from this NYT article particularly caught my attention. Here, despite whatever giveaway, formerly known as the bail-out, “rescue” the Senate may approve on Wednesday, the message in this photo seems clear. We are staring down the abyss. Not only are we looking down the cliff but from this angle, we’ve already walked out past the ledge. This is the moment Willie Coyote realizes he’s about to free fall into oblivion.
I also appreciate how all those electric green symbols on the giant electronic ticker are cascading down to the floor were there are more wires, screens and computers than human beings. This theft was not created by machines, but it is the machine that’s been employed for all those “complex” unregulated investment instruments which lie at the center of the “crisis.” The Matrix thus serves as another appropriate metaphor (borrowing from Baudrillard) as the “code” merely supports the illusion of stability.
I’m drawn back to a scene from Don DeLillo’s Cosmopolis in which the protagonist, a billionaire Wall Street speculator converses with his “Chief of Theory.” At one point in the conversation his theorist says, “We are not witnessing the flow of information so much as pure spectacle, or information made sacred, ritually unreadable” (p 80). Earlier in the conversation she states that, “Money has lost its narrative quality the way painting did once upon a time. Money is talking to itself” (p 77). A paragraph later she continues:
“And property follows of course. The concept of property is changing by the day, by the hour. The enormous expenditures that people make for land and houses and boats and planes. This has nothing to do with traditional self-assurances, okay. Property is no longer about power, personality and command. It’s not about vulgar display or tasteful display. Because it no longer has weight or shape. The only thing that matters is the price you pay…The number justifies itself” (p 78).
Is this what Bush’s Treasury Secretary Paulson told Congress when asked about the number, seven hundred billion dollars? Congress (and the American people): “Why do you need that much money? How did you come to that figure?” Secretary Paulson: “I know its very difficult for all you untrained economists to grasp the complexity of it all. But you see, the number justifies itself!”
I can’t know the complex, inter-dependent, and highly subjective process that went into this photo ultimately finding its way to the pages of the New York Times. But neither painting nor any other art form has “lost its narrative quality.” Even right now, where money is just “talking to itself,” art is still talking to us. We ultimately don’t suffer from a lack of alternative narratives but a lack of meaningful political power.
Just over twenty two years ago Paul Simon released his album Graceland, an album which has never found itself in “the old stack.” Six years into the Reagan financial revolution (aka the beginning of the end of the regulatory state) Mr. Simon clearly saw the writing on the wall. In 1986, the first track on Simon’s album illuminated some of the simple truths that DeLillo would visit in Cosmopolis and Justin Lane asks us to consider in the photograph above.
And I believe
These are the days of lasers in the jungle
Lasers in the jungle somewhere
Staccato signals of constant information
A loose affiliation of millionaires
And billionaires and baby
These are the days of miracle and wonder
This is the long distance call
The way the camera follows us in slo-mo
The way we look to us all
The way we look to a distant constellation
Thats dying in a corner of the sky
These are the days of miracle and wonder
And dont cry baby, dont cry
Dont cry
With all the images and references to boxing offered by the media, this image caught my attention. I was recently informed that McCain has played an active role in Boxing legislation so he’s no stranger to the sweet science. The symbolism here is too obvious but do notice the two men in the foreground with clinched fists cheering on McCain. With this photo the Times actively reinforces the message explicit in McCain’s visual props.
Finally a flowchart explaining how “Modo’s” mind works. This is absolutely hilarious. Unfortunately she still gets prime real estate at the New York Time’s to spew her filth. She’s been at it a long time. Remember back in 1999 when she wrote about Al Gore:
“Al Gore is so feminized and diversified and ecologically correct, he’s practically lactating” (June 16, 1999).
Numerian offered an interesting (if too forgiving) take on Jon, always the right-wing concern troll in centrist clothing, Meacham’s latest frontpage charade. But what concerned me most was not so much the article, which isn’t entirely horrible, but the cover image and what it communicates.
UPDATE: Lesson learned. If something seems either completely uncharacteristic or to good to be true, save it immediately. The NYT removed the image as I was writing this post. I was still able to find the thumbnail, which is not helpful to my analysis. Damn, live and learn.
