Comments

  4. Kip Williams says

    So even the Socialists were entirely capable of making propaganda against something that made the target suddenly look better to the people they were trying to convince. How many pimply faced young men stopped fighting for the Masses that day and spent their last dollar on the dandiest pair of spats they could find?

  5. PaulBC says

    Humped in my sleep by batwinged capitalism!

    I’m not sure it works that well as propaganda. This is a more appealing picture of capitalism than the usual fat guy with a top hat.

  7. John Morales says

    Here’s another sentiment: Americans spend twice as much on Halloween as on their national parks. It is consumerism gone mad

    Pullquote:

    Halloween started as a Celtic holiday honouring the dead.

    It was then adopted by the Catholic Church as a time to remember saints. One research paper described Halloween as an “evolving American consumption ritual”, but a better description might be an over-the-top spending ritual.

    To put the $US8.8 billion being spent on Halloween in context, the budget for the entire National Park Service is only $4 billion. The US spends less than $2 billion on flu vaccines.

    (Consumerism, capitalism… different shadows of the same thing)

  8. Akira MacKenzie says

    John Morales @ 7

    To be honest, of all the commercialized “holidays” out there, Halloween is the best, I love seeing the kids (and adults) in costumes! For Trick or Treat, I love sitting down by the fireplace and watching old horror movies or reading Lovecraft. Some of my favorite memories were of going out Trick or Treating or, in latter years, sitting with my friends watching monster movies. Indeed, my happiest Halloween memory was an all night, dusk-till-dawn session of Call of Cthulhu at a friend’s house complete with BBQ before. I’d given anything to live that night again!

  9. John Morales says

    Fair enough, Akira. I certainly don’t want to Grinch it.

    But really, it’s a USA thing. Almost got traction here in Oz, but turned out to be a fad.

  10. brain says

    aspleen @2

    The sexism is strong in this one.

    Please explain why. Are all allegorical representations sexist if they portray a female figure in a negative role?
    I’d like to know if you consider “il quarto stato” from Pellizza da Volpedo (quite a famous painting) to be sexist as well.