RES: Korea's blessing

Doug Henwood dhenwood at panix.com
Tue Jun 27 11:36:31 PDT 2000


Seth Ackerman wrote:


>Doug Henwood wrote:
>
>> And of course there was the snotty Economist cover, with a picture of
>> Kim waving to the world, with the headline "Greetings, Earthlings."
>>
> That was pretty funny, though.

Yes, it was. Their photo captions are often hilarious, though nasty.


> I wish that kind of humor could be
>found on the covers of magazines with better politics.

Years ago, at an URPE summer camp, Alex Cockburn picked up a copy of Against the Current, with the headline "Stop the Killings!" AC said, "No, why? Can't we have some of our own killings?"

Most "magazines with better politics" are full of earnest, deadly headlines like that. They're afraid of slang, irreverence, or anything to aggressive. Fear of aggression or of giving offense rules out most humor. So you get the exhortatory and obvious instead. Or the wonkish.

Doug



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list