Above are two posters of propaganda. Of course, the one on the left is Stalin in communist Russia. The one on the right is the newly released logo of Obama’s health care reform efforts.
Notice the striking similarities:
1. Both employ nationalistic logos. Obama’s Hope Circle is probably more recognized than any other recent logo in American history. It is arguably as immediately recognizable as Mickey Mouse. Communist nations employ their dictator’s face as the national logo, much as Chairman Mao, Lenin, Stalin, Castro, and Kim Jong Il do. (Notice I did not say state logos, which is an altogether different thing. To understand the difference between a state and a nation is a fundamental necessity.)
2. Both depict the maps of their political boundaries. Each photo has their respective country’s souther border highlighted. America’s southern border states are in the immediate foreground, with the northern states fading into the horizon. Russia highlights her southern borders near the Black Sea and Caspian Sea, including previously Soviet-controlled Georgia and Azerbaijan. These common depictions intend to imply a national movement and direction, or more broadly, a common goal. With North being well-established as the geographical equivalent of “up,” it also alludes to symbolic progress.
3. Both employ the masses standing in full support. While Stalin’s poster is much less subtle in its portrayal of obedient citizens, they both imply the same message. Each has their citizens in two-dimensional circumclusion of the nationalistic logo–Obama’s Hope circle, Stalin’s personage. This not only says that to agree with the symbol includes you in the inner circle, but it also implies the negative correlation: to disagree would be to be cast out as an enemy of the state.
I am not saying that Obama got his idea from Stalin, or that he absolutely adheres to Communist principles because of this poster. I am only saying both men are great in employing propaganda to meet their desired result. However, we as Americans should never employ propaganda to silence a dissenting opinion. Let us “Hope” Obama never does that.
(The Russian translation of Stalin’s poster, is “Forward to Communism Under Great Stalin’s Guidance”)
