I don't know why but the Royal Society of Arts has never really appeared on my radar before today. I suppose that I had just assumed that it was part of the establishment and nothing to do with me. However, when I was told that Will Self was introducing a talk by cartoonist Martin Rowson on "The Power of the Political Cartoon" it sounded too good to miss and I duly trotted off to RSA HQ in John Adam Street. It turned out to be one of the most interesting and entertaining gigs that I have been to for some time. The main thrust of Rowsons argument was that humanity has been around for about a hundred thousand years and that for almost all of that time lived in non-hierachial hunter/gatherer societies, with social elites only developing with the dawn of agriculture. Nothing very new so far but Rowson then went on to suggest that the main tool used by hunter/gatherers to prevent the emergence of an elite is mockery. Nothing punctures the inflated ego of the potential leader like having the urine extracted at length. Political cartoons are an honourable continuation of that ancient tradition.
Martin Rowson is not just a brilliant cartoonist, he is also a very amusing speaker. If all the RSA's talks are as good as this I might become a regular.
No comments:
Post a Comment