“The War Octopus” - “Ondanks onze beschaving (of beschavingspeil)”, via Google translate: Despite our culture (or civilisation level).

Published 27 August, 1939 in Algemeen Handelsblad (Amsterdam). 

Image Source: International Institute of Social History, Collection: IISG (Pieck, H.), Call # BG D55/850. (Accessed 23rd Oct 2010).

The Federal Octopus, 1933

Update: no one is to tell Mr. Rabbit - the mad monk - about the federal octopus of waste.

Cartoon shows the devil (shown as half man, half goat) using a trident to fish an octopus labled “Curtis Lie” out of a “Pool of Deparavity.” A basket full of octopuses, one labled “Gaston B. Means Lie,” sit on the bank behind him. The devil, disgusted, cries out, “Faugh!” The sensational event of 1932 was the kidnapping and murder of the Lindbergh baby. Many people attemped to cash in on the investigation including John Hughes Curtis and Gaston B. Means, each of whom claimed falsely that they were in contact with the kidnappers. Both men were subsequently convicted and served prison terms. Pease suggests that preying on the hopes and fears of the Lindbergh family was a crime despised even by the devil.

Quote and image from Library of Congress: “From the Lowest Depths” http://loc.gov/pictures/item/2007675309/ (Accessed 5th June 2010).

Artist:  Lute Pease, published in 1932

How Communism Works (~1938 )

Source: http://wpscms.pearsoncmg.com/wps/media/objects/1693/1733989/images/img_w066.html

Octopus of Crime – Secret Agent X (1934)

The following is the cover of a pulp magazine that recently entered into my possession. ‘Secret Agent “X”: Octopus of Crime’, from Sept 1934. Another example of metaphor – octopus of crime – that quite happily co-exists in both popular culture and the political.

Octopus as an anti-semitic symbol?

In April 2007¹ there was a furore over the depiction of New York mayor Michael Bloomberg as an octopus on cover of America’s 1st Freedom: a National Rifle Association (NRA) magazine. The octopus was seen an antisemitic symbol, and as an attack on the mayors Jewish heritage.

The NRA cartoon was a response to the perception that the mayor was extending ‘his reach, and his illegal anti-gun tactics, across America’²: classic octopus and its interfering tentacles. So in this case it was unlikely that any antisemitic feeling was intended.

But can the octopus be an anti-Semitic symbol? Yes and no. The following is a bit tautologous, but please bear with me. It is not anti-semitic as the octopus is so widely used as a metaphor for any organisations or governments that it just cannot be³ as the motif is too general. But, at the same time, that is also why it can be considered anti-semitic: when the belief that there is a Jewish conspiracy -  i.e. Protocols of the Elders of Zion and ilk – and that is the organisation represented and that has its interfering tentacles/arms around the world. Then, yes, in my opinion it can be considered anti-semitic symbol.

I think it comes down to judging each political cartoon on it own merits, and in context. Criticising Israeli policy is not anti-semitic. Anti-semitism is claiming there is a Jewish octopus out to take over the world. For example: I don’t think either the Chegodayev (2002) nor the Starvo (2001) cartoon – taken on it own merits⁴ – is anti-semitic, however, the octopuses that bear the Star of David that appear in the Seppla (~1939) cartoon, and on the cover of the “International Jew” (2001) are anti-semitic. The cartoons need to be considered in context of where they appear and when they were produced.

Footnotes:

1. via Hardy, David. 19 April 2007. Of Octopuses and NRA. In, Of Arms and The Law, http://www.armsandthelaw.com/archives/2007/04/of_octopuses_an.php. (accessed 01-Jan, 2009).
2. Lucadano, Kathleen. 14 February 2008. Mayor Bloomberg and the NRA. In, NY Daily News, http://www.nydailynews.com/news/us_world/2008/02/14/2008-02-14_mayor_bloomberg_and_the_nra.html. (accessed. 01 Jan 2008)
3. I think there is a flaw in my logic here
4. I think with the Chegodayev and Starvo cartoons where they appeared is important. I haven’t seen them in context with the editorials, opinions etc with which they appeared.
5. Gerstenfeld, Manfred. June 2004. Major Anti-Semitic Motifs in Arab Cartoons: Interview with Joël Kotek In, Institute for Global Jewish Affairs, http://www.jcpa.org/JCPA/Templates/ShowPage.asp?DRIT=3&DBID=1&LNGID=1&TMID=111&FID=624&PID=0&IID=644&TTL=Major_Anti-Semitic_Motifs_in_Arab_Cartoons . (accessed. 01 Jan 2009)