Culture Political Communication

Putin's birthday has rolled around and in his honor, there has been a series of art pieces done that depict him as Hercules, completing his own modern day Labors. The pictures can be seen here.  This runs along the usual lines of propaganda sent out about Putin. He is masculine, strong, able to defeat things, able to protect his country.

I think these pictures are a good example of how artistic propaganda can fail as a form of communication when one moves from culture to culture. The idea behind the Putin pictures was to honor him, to show how strong he is, how manly. It is also, on a grander scale, supposed to show other countries that the leader of Russia is someone to fear and respect (because he is manly and strong, etc).

The problem is, when it comes to countries like America, such images fail completely. In any country where irreverence, critical thinking, and a basic understanding of pop psychology exist, images of a man dressed in a toga as he fights a terrorist are not respected, they are laughed at. We do not see a strong man, rather, we see a man who is egocentric, delusional, and full of narcissism . .  none of these are really good qualities in a leader. Instead of  making us fear Russia, it just makes us roll our eyes. This is also what we do when people in our own political commercials wear camo or hold guns. That kind of pandering would actually make me want to vote for you LESS.

You know, honestly, if there is one trait I love the most in Americans, it IS our irreverence. I like the fact that many of us see nothing as sacred. In fact, I believe that a lot of us see everything as equally sacred (which still basically makes nothing sacred). I like the fact that we can blow off just about anything and laugh at our own tragedies. It's how we get through them. It's how we move forward. I think when people start taking things to seriously is when we usually screw up as a nation.