A Brief History

Posters seem to be a lost art, these days. When I was younger they were everywhere and available in many shops. I just don't run into them a lot anymore, and when I do it's mainly in the form of photos of pop stars of one type or another. But back in the day there all kinds of graphics sending messages and dreams to people who wished to see them.

My all-time favorite poster was one which I would see on the walls in houses and apartments of some of my friends. For some odd reason I never bought one for myself even though I should have and always got a kick out of seeing when I'd encounter it.

The image listed below is one posted by an old acquaintance on Facebook and I copied it from that source (Jeff Osier). The art and sentiments all belong to Robert Crumb, arguably the finest comics artist the world has ever seen. If the term "genius" can be ascribed to a comic artist, the one I would give it to would be Robert Crumb.

I've seen a later version of this poster done by Crumb which adds some panels that give the viewer a more positive view of the direction of human tendencies. I was not happy to see the newer version as I feel that it defeats the lesson of caution that this original preaches. At any rate, here it is. No truer version of modern society was ever shown.

A Short History of America. By Robert Crumb. Copyright by Robert Crumb.

What's Wrong

This poster by R. Crumb sums up what's wrong with this world better than anything I've ever read. I've felt this way about the USA since I was a young man. Even when I was a kid, I knew about the things that this continent had lost to the hand of humans because I read a lot and my dad would tell me the things that he had seen chewed up and spat out by our consumerist society.

(This illustration is copyright by Robert Crumb. I think you can buy it (and other stuff by Robert Crumb) at this site.)

These things always bothered me: The way our species eats everything. We gobble up anything from which a profit can be turned. The animals, the trees, the grasses, the rivers, the lakes, the ponds, the swamps, the deserts, the mountains, the substrate, the aquifer, the soil, the air...

Since I've been born I've watched vast tracts of my southern homeland vanish beneath concrete and asphalt, shopping centers and subdivisions. I've seen the rural buffers between towns and cities vanish to become one enormous megalopolis. I've watched forests whittled down to small patches of so-called "wilderness". I've seen National Parks pushed on all sides until everything that one fears encroaches up to the very borders of these parks, shutting them all in behind a fence of stinking industrialization.

I don't wonder that R. Crumb doesn't live here anymore.

I still labor away at my job, escaping whenever possible to see the vanishing bits of Mother Nature. She's wasting away and, I'm convinced, will soon be damaged beyond all recognition. That's why I go so often into the forests. I want to see them before it's too late. I'd suggest that you do the same.

Sometimes I wonder that I can still smile. Sometimes I wonder how I can.