“The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing”. A prophetic quote from Albert Einstein that truly reflects the vices of our nature. Our foolish tendencies to be distracted with trivialities whilst our society is being crippled from the behind is evident through the conventions of satire. This is because satire exposes the flaw within this mindset, we as complacent members of society are willing to accept. This flawed mindset can be especially conveyed through Clay Butler’s cartoon “Criminal Wisdom”. It is a well-established fact that in this highly modernised society, we have a shorter attention span, from 12 to 8 seconds, in the last decade. The alarming statistic is attributed to our …show more content…
This is highlighted through the salience of the police officer's understatement in the speech bubble in contrast to the mostly black and white surroundings of a crumbling society. The normalisation of this flawed attitude is conveyed through the parody of the logos of several famous corporations, representative of our mainstream society, broadcasting pro crime and murder signs to the public, unbeknownst to the police officer. Examples of the symbolic representation of this notion can be shown through the Just Do It sign, which is accompanied with an image of a rifle instead of the usual tick, and the puns incorporated in the McMurder and Gag Me signs, a direct reference to McDonalds and Gap. This all demonstrates how we as society are complacent in brushing off the real injustice blatantly affecting our society. We, in the most twisted sense, prefer to walk past it, pretend like its not our problem in favour of paying attention to the issues that matter the least, just like our fellow police officer in the cartoon