Ambrose Pierce, Political Satirist, Good For All Times

In times when some western governments do not face a strong political opposition, satire becomes a useful weapon for those who use ridicule and shame to hold accountable those who rule us. I became aware of the genre in the 1960s with shows like Beyond the Fringe. David Frost’s television show, ‘That Was The Week That Was’, broadcast on Saturday nights, became essential viewing. Frost, with the help of others like John Cleese and Ronnie Barker, would poke fun at the rulers of British society. Bernard Levin would take a few minutes to destroy celebrity businessmen. It was huge fun!

There is a long history of political satire in America. Starting with my own awareness, in the 1960s Lenny Bruce’s biting humour offended the establishment, who repaid the favour by imprisoning him on drug offences. The laconic Smothers Brothers featured on US television in The Comedy Hour. Their songs were so provocative that CBS ordered the brothers to record their programs ten days before airing so CBS could censor what they did not like. In recent times, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert have taken up the cudgels to lambast the political great and good of the US Congress and The White House.

Although the genre is male dominated, Janeane Garofalo has gained quite a reputation for deadpan and witty observational humour. In the 1990s she introduced progressive, left-leaning politics into her act and her on-screen persona. She played the part of press secretary to Matt Santos, the Democratic nominee for president, in the final series of The West Wing. In this role, she seemed to play herself.

I am aware that political satire is not solely a phenomenon of post WWII life. Benjamin Franklin was quite a dab hand. Recently, a good friend introduced me to the works and thoughts of Ambrose Bierce. A nineteenth century American, Bierce was an editorialist, journalist, short story writer and satirist. Amongst his works was the compilation of a satirical lexicon, The Devil's Dictionary. His vehemence as a critic, his motto, "nothing matters" and his sardonic view of human nature have enormous appeal.

Bierce had little time for the law. “A lawsuit,” he wrote “is a machine which you go into as a pig and come out of as a sausage.” Likewise, he had no respect for politicians. “What is a Democrat? One who believes the Republicans have ruined the country. What is a Republican? One who believes the Democrats would ruin the country.” Religion did not escape his sharp wit. “The sacred books of our holy religion are distinguished from the false and profane writings on which all other faiths are based.” He defined cynics as “blackguards whose faulty vision sees things as they are and not as they ought to be.”  He also advised public orators to “speak when you are angry and you will make the best speech you will ever regret.”

There is much humour in these quotes as well as satire. However, what Bierce had to say about America and his fellow-countrymen pinches a nerve. “War,” he wrote, “is God’s way of teaching America geography.” When you live in a country the size of America, where some 70% of the population do not own a passport, and when you consider that America has been at war almost continuously since 1941, the observation is astute and apparently timeless.

I am no geographer but I have been astonished over the years by the inability of some Americans to know about the rest of the world. Do you remember Joe the Plumber? He was the man depicted by John McCain in 2008 as the ordinary American, the hard-working, family man who did the right thing. Would he have cared where Syria is? Would he be able to describe the land occupied by ISIL? Perhaps yes, perhaps not. I suspect similar questions could be asked of Europe’s version of Joe the Plumber, with adverse answers.

The point is that Bierce regarded many of his fellow citizens as dumb. In Bierce’s times, public education was nowhere near the size it is today as many children were required to work on the family farm or in the sweatshops and factories of the cities. Perhaps this explains his opinion.

Bierce also famously stated, "America is a mistake! A giant mistake!" Why would he say such a thing? America became the leading nation of the 20^th century. It assured a quantity of life for the majority of its citizens. It was victorious in two world wars, played the world’s policeman for more than half a century and sought to be a force for good, even if its methods in countries such as Iraq might seem the contrary.

However, Bierce wrote in the period following the Civil War when the executive branch of the US government was almost invisible. The chief executives were popularly termed “The Postage Stamp Presidents” because that was pretty well all the people saw of them. When I look at the current crop of candidates for the Presidency in 2016, now all too visible in the media, I wonder whether Bierce had a point about mistakes.