9.08.2005

The Nero Meme.

The image of George W. Bush honkytonkin' with country singer Mark Wills while New Orleans residents were dying on August 30 is sure to become one of the defining images of his presidency. Bloggers have been juxtaposing the image alongside photos of what was happening in Gulf states during the same hours, but now the meme is taking on a new pictorial form: Photoshoppers are editing Bush into the scenes of suffering—to devastating effect. The fusion seems to say something that, to me, feels pretty true about this president's frivolity and focus, and the feverish spin that's following the White House's early inaction after Katrina seems to bear it out.


I've seen several such images, but can't find them now. If you spot more, please email me the link.

4 comments:

Geno Z Heinlein said...

You think that's bad? Just wait until the Shrub's electoral base remembers that the original Nero was the Antichrist whose name was translated into numbers as 666.

Anonymous said...

hey geno. actually 666 is caligula's number. wrong badass, but point well taken.

Anonymous said...

re: the Nero Meme, this on really killed me.

Geno Z Heinlein said...

Apparently, the exact identity of the beast is debatable. Per Wikipedia on the Number of the Beast: It was actually a complicated numerical riddle in Greek, meant to represent someone's name. "It's a number puzzle -- the majority opinion seems to be that it refers to [the Roman emperor] Nero."

The bottom line? Bush == the Antichrist! :-)