AS Final- "A Story we Tell Ourselves"

This political cartoon is an important contemporary artifact because it conveys our country’s current economic issue. The artifact also relates to the class because it shows an imposing threat, a clash of powers, and an incorrect focus.

In the center of the image, there is a giant, imposing fiscal cliff sign.  This echoes the idea that our country is facing a big problem that is scary and threatening. As a result, the problem must be eliminated in order to protect American citizens. Comparatively, in the movie Grizzly Man, Timothy Treadwell has the task of protecting the bears from poachers and hunters. These poachers and hunters threaten the lives and safety of the bears, putting the burden to save these animals on Treadwell. Werner Herzog recognizes Treadwell’s devotion to the bears: “I have seen this madness [anger towards poachers and hunters] before on a film set. But Treadwell is not an actor in opposition to a director. He’s fighting civilization itself”. Treadwell is willing to do whatever is necessary to protect these animals, even if it means “fighting civilization”. In comparison, Obama and Boehner are tasked with protecting US citizens from the impending fiscal cliff. If a deal had not been reached by Congress, citizens would currently be in disarray and economic hardship. Even though both political parties don’t always agree, they needed to find common ground to protect the citizens from the looming fiscal cliff, just as Treadwell protected the bears from the poachers and hunters.

Despite the compromise to arrive at a fiscal cliff deal, Obama and Boehner certainly were not just trying to find an economic solution. Obama and Boehner were more focused on making each other look bad. This idea is evidenced in the caption, “who would engineer such a thing”. It is quite ironic because Obama and Boehner were the ones who created this mess, but are now asked to fix it. However, now they are not equipped to do so because they have waited too long due to their fighting. The idea of focusing more on making another party look bad occurs in The Crucible. During Elizabeth Proctor’s trial for witchcraft, Proctor is defending her by telling the court that she isn’t a witch. However, since Parris dislikes Proctor, he wants to make a fool out of Proctor and repeatedly says, “this is a clear attack upon the court”(87) when Proctor defends Elizabeth. Parris should be focused on expelling witchcraft from Salem, but is too caught up in trying to get Proctor in trouble. This leads to an even worse witchcraft hysteria, similar to the worsening economic problems our country faces.

Despite focusing on making each other look bad, Obama and Boehner care more about the end result than the process. They have the attitude that as long a deal gets done, it doesn’t matter how they get there. Comparatively, in the poem Shhhhhhirt, by Robert Pinsky, big companies care more about meeting their quotas in order to sell $5 shirts than the working conditions of the producers: “The planter, the picker, the sorter/ sweating at her machine in a litter of cotton/ as slaves in calico headrags sweated in fields”. Workers are suffering like slaves, just because big retail companies want to sell cheap clothes. Similarly, the government just wants to arrive at a fiscal cliff deal, not worrying about the citizens that are suffering economically and the ones who may be affected by it.

The fiscal cliff is America’s biggest economic decision in years, but the government is too caught up in protecting their image. They want the story to be told positively for generations to come. So I guess V.S. Ramachandran was right: it’s just “a story we tell ourselves”.