Using Archie’s Old Image
A Comment on Current Hypocricy
Past Symbol & Used With Current Words
John Fraim
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Yes, at first glance, in the image above, one immediately realizes that Archie Bunker, who is speaking to his wife Edith, is the grand conservative figure of TV in the 70s. Archie is on the extreme right of the political spectrum at the time. His son-in-law Mike is on the extreme left. The first great conservative viewpoint in direct clash with the liberal viewpoint in the groundbreaking clash between conservative and liberal values. A conservative image is the image alone without the words. And so often, image alone is all that matters.
But then, get to reading the words over the image. They are very true, and this truth is impossible to deny. For still many the population. The crack of Archie is not aimed at whether it is right to have a gun. But rather, as an example of the present administration saying one thing and doing something else. Or below, the President lecturing on gun control when he gave away our guns. The image and message provide a mixture of old image with new words. An iconic image of memory with words from the current world.
The original appearing image provides a powerful conservative identification to those who watched the show remember the show. The image calls up a past identification to all who watched the program in the 70s. The identification to the image is powerful. Yet words – over the image – are not from the past but called up from events of the current period. Here, the words are called up not to question the yes or no of guns. Rather, to show a hypocrisy on the part of the current administration that many people feel. And how many today would seriously argue with Archie’s questions about this hypocrisy put in the context of the gun debate? The general gun debate is used to show the hypocrisy of the actions of the administration regarding guns. Again, not weighing in at all about the yes or no of banning guns.
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In many ways, a brilliant, subtle message for all who might try to decipher its true effect on people. First, Archie has become a symbol of a certain person in society. In the 70s for sure. Perhaps many today. Who really knows? Because he is a symbol there is the effect of the symbol of a past story and person in this story in one’s memory. Again, as we’ve noted, a powerful symbol of the past, pulling one’s feelings towards this old image of memory.
The words in the image below come from the present over an image from the past. This is interesting. Usually, present words appear in present images. Here, present words pulled from current events related to one common issue in society today. Guns. But again, subtly, the words don’t take on the usual yes or no side in gun control. No, again, this ad is not about gun control but using a hot issue to show the hypocrisy of one laughably hypocritical thing the administration has done in their actions regarding gun control. Here, the words describe what has happened in the news that we all have seen. In other words, it is hard to provide an answer to Archie’s question below. A comment to Edith while watching TV himself and the news of our time. In other words, Archie is watching the current President lecturing us about one thing but doing something the opposite of what he has lectured us to do.
A fascinating ad below. The kind that can be made ups quickly whether licensing deals have been made before publishing the ad. But dissemination is so cheap on the Internet if one knows who they’re doing. And ironic comments like the below. Giving an iconic TV image (symbol) of our collective past present-day life with words to his wife Edith commenting on the hypocrisy of the current administration. Hypocrisy seems such a good word for me in describing the new world out there today we’re in. Post pandemic.
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Marshall McLuhan might have called the overall ad “cool” in that it invited two-way participation of the reader/viewer of the message in completing the message. Unlike “hot” media that broadcast out one-way communication. The conservative icon comments on the world today. From the TV chair in front of his TV. In the 1970s. Half a century ago. Here, a icon put into the service of questioning the presence of hypocrisy in the world rather than issues. The actions of those who govern while their words are so different. But not just hypocrisy of guns and the government. Hypocrisy is our towns, states, nation. World. The topic is large and so hidden from attention on the fear of stirring up a lot of people.
The ad has one thinking about all the other crazy hypocrisies in the world like the one that Archie says to Edit. The ad has one thinking around the world hypocrisy in the world. What people see and hear with their eyes and ears and what people tells them and how they act. The is hypocrisy in one’s town, state. Nation or world today. Seen far beyond the hot political topic of the ad context below in started out in. An old image in the collective memories of the baby-boom generation. Giving his famous TV comments of the 70s to Edith. Now, in 2022. Words of the present. The ad besides consuming up an important word – so much hidden in current usage – gets the major theme of an ad. Archie makes a casual comment to Edith from in this iconic scene in collective memory.
Not really about guns. But about hypocrisy. Using an icon image in the memory of a generation. Giving the icon words by making a comment to Edith. Lots going on in the simple ad below. Conflicting time periods. Again, inviting us to see the hypocrisy in the nation today. In government of course with the administration and gun issue. But also, with other issues branching out from the gun issue.
An iconic character of a generation’s collective past puts into a few words an example of hypocrisy in the world today. It is an interesting topic because one that is seldom mentioned almost as if fear that some great scheme will suddenly be exposed. So many side issues are involved also. Topics like the prevalence in society today of the behavior called “gaslighting.”
Archie invites Edith to “look at dat” in the imagined clip from the famous TV program. In effect, Archie invites all of us to simply “look at dat.” That is, all the hypocrisy in the world of people acting one way and telling others another way. Again, there seems no better rallying cry word to me at the moment than the word hypocricy. Looking for hypocracy in the world can easily consume all of one’s time. It’s probably not worth it in the long run anyway. But the above idea expressed in the image and words true through so much society today.
And, certainly politics. In the above message, an old icon is given words and a voice of today. An old image transferred into a modern setting. Maintaining much of the symbolic power from this transfer.
Observation of Archie to Edith. Not really a political observation as much as one of blazing common sense in a pretty brutal statistic related to the current administation. It is enough to take up all your looking for hypocricy today today. For me, it’s not worth it To know that hypocricy is everywhere today is enough for me to know. There’s other pursuits to spend one’s time here on the planet’s time with. Searching down hypocrits in life has no interest for me. I know that current media has little interest in covering the topic of hypocracy. To cover hypocracy would be to expose the structure of the national media and all those somehow “priviledged” to define the rules and the way I see the world today. For me. Through my own senses and feelings and moods.
Interfaced together.