Picture This

I haven’t written a blog in a while, possibly because few if any people tend to read them. I end up feeling like those guys who used to stand in the town square when I was young, waving a Bible or whatever and haranguing the masses—who pretty much ignored them.

I had an uncle who did this sort of thing in his youth, I’m reliably informed. He became a rabid Communist and used to go to Speakers’ Corner to brandish the Communist Manifesto and spread the word—and I’m sure he got ignored in his turn.

As his niece I’ve got something of the need to stand up and say my piece, although these days it’s through writing a blog—and most often getting ignored. Which brings me neatly back to where I began this one.

Why am I writing a blog again though, after all this time? It all began late last week, when I made and posted some memes, in these times of political turmoil in the UK—and promptly got my knuckles rapped in one Facebook group. Leave out the politics, I was told, it can be offensive and divisive, if you take it any deeper than this.

You don’t say. I was aware of that, even if I hadn’t spent many years attending social events in the cause of my husband’s employment, and where politics and religion were taboo subjects at dinners for just that reason. Very boring dinners they were too, for me anyway, as I can only make so much small talk. I played by the rules though.

As I did with my postings on Facebook. I had no intention of taking the thing any deeper, but I didn’t bother to point that out, along with the fact that the subjects I chose to pillory were pretty irrefutable, even by the most die-hards. The UK economy was tanked recently, a senior minister did jump ship on a flimsy pretext, we have gone through more Prime Ministers than I’ve had hot dinners this year and hey, why not elect the next one on the spin of a coin, a wheel of fortune or some similar method of random chance? Because that’s where we’re at in the farce that our government has become, and I for one will carry on our proud tradition of satirising such events.

Because it is a proud tradition, existing since the Ancient Egyptians, maybe before them, and hitting its peak in England in the 18th century when the likes of Swift, Pope and Defoe honed the art of biting satire to address social evils. Read Swift’s A Modest Proposal to see what I mean, if you haven’t already done so.

Pictorial satire moved towards greatness in the artworks of William Hogarth—who happens to have influenced my own writing. It reached a peak in the political cartoons of James Gillray, who pilloried kings and prime ministers in his work, and this is the root of modern cartoons in the media and memes on social media—which is where I come in.

A friend who likes my memes—and others like them—pointed out that, poke fun at the political situation as we might, it’s actually a frightening and embarrassing situation in which we find ourselves. That’s true, and it’s part of the point of the humour of these cartoons. We laugh at what we fear, especially if we feel powerless to do much about it. We could march on Westminster with our demands, and some will, but major change won’t happen anytime soon. Until that time comes we’ll do what we can, which includes making fun of the major players in this farce.

I won’t post my memes where they’re not wanted again though. Far be it from me to cause offence, or take it at being effectively told to get lost. I’ll just post in my own space, and those who don’t like what I’m saying won’t have to suffer it.

Thank you for reading—or not.