Pop Art Flashback: 1935, by Arthur Tebbel – Pop Art #155

November 22, 2011 Arthur Tebbel 3 Comments

Art is still on break.  Here’s another installment from the deep Pop Art archives.

Dear Art,

I’ve been struggling for Indian independence for many years.  Despite my use of nonviolent methods British authorities have arrested me numerous times.  I feel my methods are misunderstood and my meaning is getting lost.  What can I do to insure Indian independence from the tyranny of the British Empire?

-Mohandas Gandhi

Gandhi,

Why don’t you just get a job?  You couldn’t get the job you wanted as a lawyer.  Hell, you couldn’t even catch on as a high school teacher.  Now you think the world owes you a living and some amount of self-governance.  If you just worked harder you could become part of the appointed ruling class or at least make enough money so that you can be a part of the ruling class that keeps its foot on the throat of the majority of your peers.

Why don’t you take a damn bath?  All this time spent in prison refusing to eat is really making it hard to look at you or be around you.  I mean, come on, how can you expect anyone to take you seriously when you’re wearing homespun clothes instead of good, quality British textiles.  If you insist on running your protest movement on your own terms instead of using the medium set by the establishment how can you ever expect to be taken seriously?  Don’t be such a drag.

Aren’t you a child of privilege to begin with?  Your father was a high-ranking official in your province and was capable of providing for you.  If you come from money how am I supposed to believe you can empathize with the plight of the common Indian?  There are real Indians out there scraping to put food on their tables; they don’t need to be represented by some bureaucrat’s kid.  If you come from anything but abject poverty you have no business saying that the system is imperfect.

All those issues aside I think I can offer you a bit of advice.  You have great clarity of message but your message is being completely controlled.  All you really have in your favor is that the British don’t want you to die in their prisons.  It would make them look like monsters.  They’ll arrest you, they’ll oppress you but they know there’s only so far they can push until they’ll have a revolt on their hands.  Use that.  Put them in a situation where they have to acknowledge you or reveal themselves to be monsters.  That is the key to your success.