The story begins with Benjamin Franklin’s political
cartoon published in a popular colonial newspaper, Pennsylvania Gazette, in 1754 (Figure 1). This propaganda media, in the through the medium of printing press, was originally incited to encourage action against the British colonies’ French and Indigenous adversaries. Later, the “Join, or Die” cartoon later became a symbol of haste for the colonies to once again unite against a common enemy; in this case, Britain. Of course, the political climate of liberalism during the ‘American Enlightenment’ not only initiated their resistance to empire and oligarchy,
Figure 1
media. In an encompassing sense, it is difficult to determine media that is actually not a form of propaganda. The dissemination of information as a strategy of furthering a specific idea or perspective is an entrenched societal activity. As explained by a prominent scholar and critic of American liberalism, Arthur M. Schlesinger, “[people] have always had special objects that they schemed to achieve in society, whether the preservation of the status quo or the establishment of changes in the political and social order. Whatever the end sought, the procedure adopted to insure acquiescence or support involved methods which to-day would be termed propaganda.” Like Franklin’s Join, or Die, this propaganda media is
Benjamin Franklin (1754). Each letter represents a colony, although some colonies are omitted, and the snake’s head represents New England as a whole. Figure 2
but also would later be used to justify the revolution entirely as they fought in the name of equality, liberty, individual rights, and a social contract. “Join, or Die” can be considered as one of the earliest and most prominent political illustrations printed in an American newspaper. The second piece of visual information comes from
digital propaganda media of the Occupy Together movement (Figure 2). We could easily infer that the artist, Aaron K., is drawing a contradictory parallel between the American fiscal system and one of the country’s founding values: equality. Combining the two original images on a t-shirt,
American Revolution (Join, or Die) employs reflexivity (Figures 3). In the same way that America’s dissident origins are seen in resurging in the Occupy movement. Or, how iconographic media was used for propaganda by colonial resistors, such as Benjamin Franklin, in the building of the American nation, and is now employed as a tool by the Occupy movement in their attempts to fulfill the nation’s social compact. It is important to understand that even American Revolution (Join, or Die) is also a piece of propaganda
40 iAM
also a traditional print medium. I used a silk-screen with which to print, first, the golden sun in the background, and then the image of the snake wrapped around two black pillars, visually alluding a dollar symbol. The medium of a t-shirt (clothing) was chosen to demonstrate an alternative medium for dissemination information. The main means of mass media, radio, newspaper, television, and the Internet are certainly some of the most effective mediums for propaganda. But a message displayed on a human body, at the choice of the wearer, also holds interesting value. This venue has often been described through the idea of a ‘walking billboard’. However, there is also the possibility for agents to engage each other interpersonally. So, while American Revolution (Join, or Die) has the potential to be disseminated through the
Aaron K. (2011)
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