Sunday, July 14, 2013

#61 - Irrational



The man is dressed in Polish national clothing, particularly his hat. He mistakes a plus sign for a cross and kneels to it instead of working out the equation and seeing the error. Polish nationalism is heavily tied up with Catholicism. Raczkowski makes a clear point about the ability of mental fixation, especially of the national and religious varieties,  to blind us to obvious falsehoods. The reference to Orwell implies that the end result of this can be totalitarianism.

UPDATE: According to [an article that was either moved or deleted from the site] the above cartoon is referring to a controversy over the installation of a cross in front of the Presidential Palace. Once again we see Raczkowski's great skill in drawing a wider, almost universally applicable point from a local and contemporary event.

UPDATE 19 Mar 2015: Replaced image with larger version I found.

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