Letters to the Editor

• "I'll be there"

  [Read the article: Tom the Dancing Bug]
  [Read more letters about this article: Here]

  The best panel has got to be the one with the inversion of the heroic tone of Tom Joad's speech: "I'll be aroun' in the dark. I'll be everywhere--wherever you look. Wherever there is a fight so hungry people can eat, I'll be there. Wherever there is a cop beatin' up a guy, I'll be there..." Even the colloquialisms are mirrored in the text messaging conventions.

  Does this suggest that, in Bolling's view, people (either tacitlly or consciously) are capable of believing that consummerist practices are heroic, that consummerism will save us from irresponsible policies that advocate socialism for the rich (bailouts for companies when they DON'T profit) and capitalism for the poor (to maintain a cheap source of labor and production). You know, I've actually heard that philosophy explicitly endorsed... e.g. in the suggestion after 9/11 that the way to combat what was suggested would be a "short term" economic downturn would be for people to go out and buy SUVs.

  I'd certainly rather side with Joad than with the text messengers whose subjectivity has been completely overrun by the bizarre and aberrant consummerist impulses exposing themselves with ever increasing force in our social conventions. Indeed, there are two forms of suffering brought about by consummerist impulse: (a) that of those who can't even afford on "credit" the basic necessities consistent with the general standard of living in this society and (b) that of those who suffer the social and psychological damage of believing consciously or unconsciouly that all things of importance in this world can be purchased (whether on credit or not). The first form of suffering simply seems not to be the subject of this particular cartoon, though Lucky Ducky has often allowed Bolling to speak to this in the past. But that doesn't make the consequences of the second form of suffering nonexistent or unimportant, and the other letters reflecting on this strip seem to confirm that assessment.

  As always, thanks for the strip, Bolling.

  Permalink Thursday, October 9, 2008 07:55 PM