Images: Ground Zero On the Battlefield of Ideas
by Ari DavidImages have power. Propaganda and marketing are based on the power of the image and the thoughts and feelings that the image conveys. A photo op pulled off well can make a politician’s career. A photo op done badly will torpedo it.
Michael Dukakis riding around in a tank destroyed his presidential run. So is the power of imagery.
When I was a teenager a street artist named Robbie Conal put up grotesque pictures around Los Angeles of Ronald Reagan and his cabinet members like James Watt and Ed Meese.
These images had power over the long term and many street posters by Conal, other artists, a left-wing media and academia all worked in aggregate to change West LA which was Reagan’s home district to the left-wing bastion of “people’s republics” communities it is today. I am not asserting that Conal alone had this affect, but in interviews from the mid-eighties, Conal clearly stated that it was his goal to change public perception and public opinion with his art.
That brings us full circle with what’s happening today. Patrick Courrielche’s pieces here on BH blew the lid off of the Obama administration’s support of NEA grants to leftist artists who would harness art, image systems and ideas into political action and power to move the President’s agenda forward. I found this support in action today at the corner of Sunset and Mandaville Canyon in Brentwood California. Yes, this is the same Brentwood made famous by an ex-NFL player and his decapitated ex-wife.
It is an image of the “Monopoly Guy” demanding health care. I have seen this poster at some other locations in West LA too and this artist, who signs his art “Alec,” if that’s his real name, has done some other pictures of “Monopoly Guy” grousing about the economy. This one is at a shopping center in Malibu.
It will be interesting to find out if Alec received NEA funding for these efforts. The first problem I see if he has gotten money from the NEA is that he is committing vandalism by posting graffiti on public property and to rub salt in the wound, doing it on the public dime. He would also be receiving taxpayer money to influence electoral issues. It may be OK to use public money to support art for the public good (I don’t think so, but some do) but the public good is art in a museum or in a public square that is commissioned and approved by the community. It should also support good, high quality art, not graffiti or cheap posters.
The most insidious thing about this graffiti vandalism is that it works. It does influence elections, public perceptions and the zeitgeist of popular culture. When a lie is repeated enough it becomes true in people’s minds. The political left understands this and utilizes these techniques. To adequately compete, those of us on the right must learn to be versed in Alinsky, Soviet propaganda and Machiavelli so we can fight for these ideas in the trenches of popular culture. It is not easy, though. When you have reason, it is hard to fight emotion because emotion lends itself so easily to image systems and simplistic ideas and phrases like “War is not the answer,” “Bush lied, people died,” and “No blood for oil,” etc.
Perhaps we on the right need to use the “Monopoly Guy” image and marry it to a phrase like “No taxation without competent representation”? You know what, I kind of like that one!
The bottom line is that image has power. We had better learn to fight this new form of political warfare with the weapons our opponents have mastered. Like gasoline, matches and empty glass bottles, the raw material for these weapons are cheap and accessible. The battlefield has changed, we must adapt or we will lose.
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54 Comments
My contribution to the war of images.
Aw, Mr. Eagle! Do you think maybe it should be a pretty cage? Like, "look at this nice cage Obama will put you in… he'll take care of you…" to show how the eagle ends up there?
Nice start, I would encourage you to continue your work.
Here's another example of using images on the right to influence public persuasion. There's a lot of material there too. Enjoy.
http://zombietime.com/
I have been saying the same thing for as long as I can remember. Conservatives have been in what amounts to a cultural war for many decades. If you haven't been paying attention you might be interested to know that we are losing. (Many say that we have already lost. Thank the stars for Andrew Breitbart who believes that the good fight can still be won.)) One reason we keep losing is that we refuse to use the effective weapons forged by our opponents. Ari David is exactly right. In a culture dominated by short attention spans and instant messaging the impact of images is staggering. We can publish all of the soberly-reasoned position papers we want but they will not yield votes or change minds half as much as sharp graphic images. Maybe we reject it because Stalinist imagery, so beloved by the Left, is repugnant to conservative decencies. Maybe so. But remember the resonance of the Obama-as-Joker graphic. THAT got people's attention. (I know the artist was a disillusioned radical.) We need more of that and must be willing to endure the inevitable sneers and cat-calls of Leftist pundits about "right-wing propaganda."
Posters changed Reagan's home district? I would have thought it was a flood of illegals from a 3rd world country.
I don't understand the message these Monopoly Guy graffiti are supposed to represent. I get the earlier example of the ugly Reagan, but this new stuff just looks like… nothing.
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Very well done, especially the eagle. The power must come from the image. Words take too long to read. Keep up the good work.
Every I see or hear about Kim Jong il I think about Team America.
Same for Matt Damon.
Videos are modern day images…
Hide the Decline…
http://usataxpayer.org/view.asp?Get=globalwarming...
Michelle Obama and Big Bird…
http://usataxpayer.org/view.asp?Get=obamaeligible...
If he keeps violating copyright like that, his next painting will be the "Go To Jail" card.
I understand that many liberals think that everything is communal property, but what's the artistic deal about being a human Xerox machine? It seems like they never got over the grade-school stage of copying the comic line for line, instead of building the drawing from the basics?
They could at least try to be original.
Is there a copyright problem with using this image? Does the person using the image have to be making money in order for the owners to step in?
Dig it brah!
Email TheftGate! Email TheftGate! Email TheftGate! A bit childish Babs? Is Boxer old enough to serve in the Senate?
Isn't the Monopoly guy protected property? Or Barbara Boxer. Is theft okay if it is tailored to fit your nonsense?
I'm with you. If I saw that on a street corner I wouldn't know if the artist was for or against health care. I guess someone with an aversion to Mr. Moneybags (I mean a leftie) might think "rich people are angry about health care for everyone else", but I don't know if that message is conveyed to moderates or conservatives who see the image. That's not the message I see when I look at it. I think these images are preaching to the choir and aren't effective in changing anyone's position.
I'm no expert, but I don't think you have to be making money in order to violate a copyright. Any unauthorized use, whether for profit or not, is a violation. The copyright holder has the right to decide how the image is used.
Clean it up. Don't use a black background. Maybe reduce it to 4 colors… suitable for printing.
Personally I'd like a picture of Obama, drawn in the style of the Monopoly Guy bending over (aka bowing) to special interests
I think it's covered by "Fair Use" laws where copyrighted images can be used to make a political point. Otherwise political cartoonists would be out of a job (on the left and right)
http://www.lib.usm.edu/~spcol/aaec/copyright.htm#...
I thought the same thing. The Monopoly guy is supposed to represent a fat cat..right? So a rich guy wanting public funded healthcare….that's a recommendation? To me equating monopoly with healthcare is pretty much saying government funded healthcare is a monopoly.
Stop thinking; you're not used to it after being an Obama zombie for so long…it points up your personal stupidity too much…
Peh.
Precisely my thoughts. Single payer system=monopoly=one group getting mucho richo.
I couldn't agree more, especially if conservatives are trying to engage the younger generation that is all about advertising, social networking and high impact graphics. Ignore them at your peril. They sure as heck aren't reading the Weekly Standard, the National Review or the WSJ. It's not even that the young aren't conservative when presented with reason and logic and life's realities, it's more that conservatives refuse to advance beyond the same cherished stale visual icons to get their attention.
The insanity of congressional spending, the now collapse of the GW scientific scam, and so many other liberal follies ought to be a treasure trove of biting sarcasm and wit fashioned into clever sound bytes and graphics.
Wait just a minute…How about he invent a conservative symbol to symbolize our big tent combination of Rural American Christians and Modern City dwellers.
It can be a Hammer and Sickle, yeah that would be great!
Oh wait…
It's Rich Uncle Pennybags, not "Monopoly Guy."
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That's what I thought as well – I thought it was AGAINST the health care reform. So perhaps this is a bad example of what the author was talking about, although his general theme is correct.
As for the artist, maybe he needs to be clearer, because I'm not getting pro-health care or pro-stimulus package. I'm getting anti health care and anti-stimulus package.
I've been watching Zombie since about '04. Awesome stuff.
Nice…
Can you do an Iconic one of a frantic chicken little carrying a flaming planet?
When people think of Obama we want them to think
Integrity Two Faced
Unemployrment Jobs going overseas and down the toilet
Corruption Handing out with one hand while pocketing with the other
Insane Spending Throwing money to pigs
Heck Iconography is not my thing but it's dang powerful
I have to agree, it's not the most powerful imaging, the point of the article is still pretty valid though.
Conservatives really do need to get much better at this, it should be no problem we have a lot of smart asses
( guilty ) and do pretty good bumper stickers, just need to extend that out a bit.
It's an easy one, Monopoly's icon of capitalism, aka conservative banker mogul, trouncing with sinister motives social justice. That's the metanarrative. Talk about rich in Bernie Madoff irony! But, it works.
Isn't it time that with wit and wisdom conservatives fought back with public humor of their own, and, not with, no offense, the stale old American Eagle confined to a birdcage?
Adaptation is the smartest means of survival. Moaning, whining, and listing ad nauseum the same old conservative bonafides in a cozy vacuum aren't going to capture the young and undecided.
Be careful – images backfire as well. Snarky bumper-stickers and other political art is just as likely to turn somebody off as to influence them toward your position, depending on who they are. And those likely to vote conservative – they look at these with disgust (whether the message is liberal or conservative).
Excellent commentary, Mr. David.
The only thing I'll add is that some conservatives are using the power of imagery to change hearts into returning to conservative values and rejecting liberal hypocrisy.
For example, Live Action uses New Media to expose the true ugliness of abortion ranging from images of murdered infants to Planned Parenthood's support for statuary rape. LA's president Lila Rose explains this further:
http://liveaction.org/blog/lila-rose-rise-up-defe...
Another pro-life group, CatholicVote, uses ads to melt stony, pro-abortion hearts. One showed how Barack Obama (child of a broken home) would not be President now if abortion were legal when he was conceived. See video below:
http://www.catholicvote.org/index.php?/site/viewV...
Not surprisingly, thanks to such tactics, the pro-life Americans now outnumber the pro-abortion Americans.
So, conservatives of stripe (fiscal, social, military, etc.) can look to the Pro-Life movement as proof that we can use imagery to effectively promote our values to the next generation.
Anything they can do, we can do better:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/35425033@N05/4115036...
See?
By their works, ye shall know them. What sort of scumbag would create a poster like that!
Monument of the Unknown Government Employee was put up in Los Angeles sometime ago. It was only temporary though, and under the current expansion of government I'd say it needs to be erected permanently in Washington. Even the libs got it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ecGkG3qUzw
The monopoly guy makes me think more of people like the Fords and the Rockefellers and other leaders on the Industrial age who made tons of money, but then became raging, raging, progressives since they exploited their workers to make their fortunes and felt they could redeem themselves by establishing social change advocacy groups (The Ford Foundation). That is who I think of when I think of fat cats, the progressives who act like they are for the little guy but are billionaires.
You are all fools.
Until we take back education by opening our own private, non-profit, FREE schools (don’t wait for vouchers) to insulate the next generation against propaganda, the Left will always be ahead of us in the war for hearts and minds.
Until we have our own TV shows to ridicule and discredit them the way they do to us, the Left will destroy our leaders.
Until we have our own TV network to define the terms of the debate, the Left will win.
Until we have our own movie studios and make our own movies, the Left will control the culture.
All it will take is time, money, and effort.
Are you up for it?
Or would you rather just whine on the internet.
How many of you are willing to fund a conservative filmmaker?
It’s always easier to complain about Michael Moore’s new movie.
I think the Obama Joker/Socialism is great for political street fighting. I have two stickers on my bumper and another on a notebook I carry around. Whatever happened to the "contest"?
Warning: some of the material is NSFW. Others can cost SAN. Others do both.
Sorry Ari- you're slightly exagerrating Conal's influence in this neighborhood (but his real influence was probably more national once the Hollywood set starting talking about Conal to the folks in NYC and beyond).
I also lived in Brentwood in the late '80's (I was in film school then and I'm still around!) and it was always a Left-wing limousine liberal place. Back in '92, James "alien head" Carville called this place the ATM of the Democratic Party. But if you're ever around Literati Cafe, say hi (I'll be the one wearing the "Chains You Can Believe In" Obama button).
BTW- I was on Motor Ave. across from 20th Century Fox Studios a few weeks back and saw this great piece of anti-Obama guerrilla art:
http://yfrog.com/1aacornj
The reason that the Obama bots are able to use NEA money to push the country toward socialism is simple:
After many years of promises to kill wasteful government spending programs like the NEA if they could ever get control of congress, Newt, Armey, DeLay, Boener, etc failed to do it when they finally got control. It turned out that the Republicans in D.C. had no interest in undoing ANY part of the FDR/LBJ bloated government machine; it was all just empty promises in fund raising letters to the base so Republicans could take "the hill" and use their power to give themselves more perks as the people in power. All the reforms they pushed through in their "first 100 days" were easily undone by subsequent democrat majorities, and most were just aimed at making republican life on "the hill" more pleasant, rather than wiping out government agencies that were taxpayer-funded arms of the Democratic party and which had no Constitutional right to exist.
Now the GOP will expect its base to pony-up more money to help them overcome the propaganda of the NEA, which the GOP failed to kill when it had the chance. Nobody should give the GOP any more money if it is not accompanied by a GOP pledge to kill the propaganda administration the next time the GOP has the chance.
True, which is why you have to know your audience. Certain images may be very effective in one part of the country and completely ineffective in another. My own thoughts are that we could use more of this stuff in places where we need to make inroads, like NY and the west coast.
I'm a Conservative and I wouldn't waste one dime on a conservative movie, don't watch any TV and wouldn't no matter who owns the channel. I had much rather produce something of actual value. Let the Libs be damned until it comes time to start shooting them.
WHY prop them up by buying their stuff???
To an extent you are right. West LA has a bohemian sensibility to it but when I was a kid, many people got real sick of Jimmy Carter because of the gas lines and supported prop 13 because f high property taxes. When Reagan was elected, I was an outcast because I was a critic. I bought all the idiotic slogans about "trickle down", "blowing up the world" etc. I was clearly in the minority in those days but starting around 86-87 there was a change and you could feel the area going much more left. There are many reasons for this, one is that people who lived there a long time sold their homes because of real estate value increases and it brought in a lot of people from elsewhere who brought leftist views with them but the real change was with the young people being influenced by the popular culture and the art on the street that reinforced the MTV messages. Conal's work is one aspect of that I want to shed light on.
Big Hollywood just linked to some anti-Obama propaganda posters.
http://www.theawl.com/2009/12/real-america-with-a...
Too funny!
Completely agree. Fund our side, stop funding their side.
Congressman Waxman has made a high profile splash in sending subpoenas to the companies which have publically reported health insurance write downs as a result of the new law. His purpose is to silence any more companies who would speak out. He has revealed that he has nothing but contempt for the first amendment rights of these companies, and that he is prepared to use his congression power like a Chicago thug would.
this man needs to be defeated. Please elect his oponent!!
Has Ari fallen off the face of the earth. I found him from the series running, but he seems to be quiet now.
[...] been a follower of street art propaganda for years. I wrote a piece about it for BigHollywood.com HERE Street level propaganda serves an important battle front in the culture war. At this level the [...]
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