The Weekly Quill — "The U.S. Consumer is Strong"
Delusions of Americana at Risk of Being Shattered
“I didn't feel sad at all. Maybe I was in a state of shock. I was a bit troubled by the loss of all my pipes, but later that morning as I was poking about the ruins, several of the men in town arrived, bringing me some new pipes.”
Norman Rockwell, 1943
What kind of person reacts to losing a lifetime of work with such insouciance? Though one is never sure, a deduction can be drawn that it was a staunch sense of self. His studio burning to the ground was a tragedy. But he knew he would rebuild, one canvas at a time.
Before the last century turned to the next, he’d heard his calling. By 1908, at the age of 14, he had withdrawn from high school and begun his formal training at the Chase Art School in his native New York City. Stints at the National Academy of Design and the Art Students League followed. His 18th year arrived with his first serious assignment illustrating Carl H. Claudy’s?Tell Me Why: Stories About Mother Nature.
Norman Rockwell’s prolificity was immortal. It is estimated that he produced more than 4,000 original works in his lifetime that spanned 84 years. He was commissioned to illustrate?Tom Sawyer?and?Huckleberry Finn?and painted portraits aplenty from Charles Lindbergh, Judy Garland, and Dwight D. Eisenhower to Eugene McCarthy, Frank Sinatra, Jackie Kennedy and his last of Colonel Sanders in 1973.
Though renowned for any number of artistic talents, his rise to icon status began with a move to Arlington, Vermont in 1939. It was there, with his second wife -- Mary Barstow, a schoolteacher, and three sons, Jarvis, Thomas, and Peter – that Rockwell found the Americana that’s synonymous with his name. Small-town U.S.A. was best captured and mass-circulated on the covers of the?Saturday Evening Post?in the war years. Released Memorial Day, 1943, we’ve committed to memory the brawny woman taking her lunch break with a rivet gun on her lap, lunch pail labeled “Rosie” under one elbow, and her foot brilliantly laid atop a copy of Hitler’s?Mein Kampf?.?
That same year, inspired by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s address to Congress, Rockwell painted?The Four Freedoms. As described on the Norman Rockwell Museum’s website, “Rockwell’s interpretations of?Freedom of Speech,?Freedom to Worship,?Freedom from Want, and?Freedom from Fear?proved to be enormously popular. The works toured the United States in an exhibition that was jointly sponsored by the?Post?and the U.S. Treasury Department and, through the sale of war bonds, raised more than $130 million for the war effort.”
After his death in 1978, the world learned that the wholesomeness conveyed in Rockwell’s art and gifted to patriotism was withheld from the artist himself. In the process of taking interviews to write his biography, author Laura Claridge learned from psychiatrist Erik Erikson that the happiness painted was not lived by Rockwell. It’s difficult to imagine the artist’s capacity to infuse his audience with such peaceful imagery that wasn’t born of his own feelings. With luck, that makes us all the more gracious.
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Unfortunately, today, graciousness is found on fewer and fewer American streets. The attribute embraced by the masses as World War II galvanized a young superpower has been displaced with anger. The risk is that the growth of unchecked divisiveness, the catalysts for which keep accumulating, infects the national psyche as we inch towards Election Day. The next driver will likely hit home the hardest, proverbially pitting neighbor against neighbor – a recession lacking the immediate bailouts to which generations have become accustomed.
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Danielle DiMartino Booth is founder and Chief Strategist at?Quill Intelligence
President, Forward Capital Mgmt. LLC; Financial Advisor/Portfolio Mgr.; Volunteer Leader, HealthRevolutionUSA.Org; Host, The Curators Podcast (Views are my own). The #1 Linked In voice supporting the ideas of RFK Jr.
2 年So well written! Delusion is the key word. Debt is the Devil's playground and so it fed this massive, 40+ year Delusion. Most people treated ASSETS as EQUITY. Not true. We are now facing the other side of that mountain, as the tab comes due. Not it's a game of musical chairs. In the end, Math is Truth.
US Budget Researcher at Uncle Sam's Checkbook
2 年This is so well written! Impeccable! Norman Rockwell's art continues to inspire generations of Americans to reach for our highest ideals, despite our tragic history. Learning a bit about his personal struggles only enhances my respect for his accomplishments in becoming a positive force in the world. Now, as to the future of the United States? A good economy will never take the place of a good national character. It can only mask poor character. Given this, I worry what the future holds.
I specialize in succession planning using sophisticated insurance solutions to mitigate risk & transfer wealth. I bring extensive experience to these planning challenges facing my clients.
2 年Nice.
President at Melodon Healthcare Technologies Delivering Effective Solutions for Complex Problems
2 年https://www.nbcnews.com/business/consumer/consumers-use-buy-now-pay-later-apps-pay-food-gas-basics-klarna-affirm-rcna25101
Mechanical Engineer at US Army, Registered P.E. (retired)
2 年How far we've fallen.