2cotAED #03: Cartoonists as canaries, and obeying in advance.

This year I am going to write something short, daily, about what is going on – “2 cents on the Arrived Ecological Debacle” (2cotAED). I have to write it; you don’t have to read it. If you DO read it, feel free to tell me how wrong I am (and hopefully why). Re: the debacle aspect: in 2004 the English writer Sara Maitland  wrote about the “pending ecological debacle.” The expression stuck with me; it’s a debacle because it was foreseen, warned about and was avoidable. Well, it’s no longer really “pending” is it?

The Washington Post’s editorial cartoonist has submitted a cartoon of billionaires grovelling in front of a statue of Trump. One of the billionaires was Jeff Bezos who… owns the Post. The cartoon was spiked (she must have known it was likely) and she has quit.

A few years ago she did a very good explanation of cartoonists as “canaries in the coal mine” for democracy, an indicator species.

So, we are being stupefied, and we are going along with it (as per Robert Kagan, writing back before Trump had even sealed the GOP nomination, ironically in the Post, which he has since quit). The best the opinions editor who spiked the cartoon could come up with was that it would be “repetition“).

Basically, he is not alone. Along with the billionaires, others are cringing, obeying in advance, as per Timothy Snyder.

We are in the deepest of shit , ecologically, culturally, politically, economically etc. But we are clamping our eyes shut, shoulders up to try to block our ears, and nostrils pinched shut. Anyone who tries to tell much of the truth of our predicament is a threat to short-term psychological and financial well-being, and must be cast out.

I don’t fancy our chances much, do you?