Define "Important Photo"
- Fred
- Aug 9
- 3 min read
John Dies at the End was a webserial back at the beginning of the 2000's. Jason Pargin (David Wong) parlayed that success into a paperback of the same name in 2007. John Dies at the End became an acclaimed cult classic film in the year 2012.
Pargin just published his fifth book in his John and Dave series: There Are No Giant Crabs in This Novel: A Novel of Giant Crabs
But in order to promote his work, Pargin maintains an internet presence at the Author Jason K Pargin Facebook page, where he tells interesting stories and asks provocative questions.
Today, he asked: What is the Single Greatest Photo Ever Taken? I didn't like Pargin's answer, but I'll let you watch his response in the link under the photo. My answers reveal the underlying themes at Beacon of Speech.
Runner-up # 1: The Symbol of Tiananmen Square
Everyone knows the story of Tiananmen Square in 1989. Chinese citizens protest their government, the government slaughters them, then China says that the event never happened. And, then, erased any traces of the story from its history. Did "Tank Man" survive? No one even knows who he was. Somehow, even in Western Nations, the photo has disappeared from many corners of the internet.
Runner-up # 2: The National Geographic Girl
Sharbat Gula gained international fame after being photographed in a refugee camp. At one time, it was National Geographic's most recognized photo in their history.
Unfortunately, Sharbat's life didn't turn out so great. The photographer spent the next 17 years after taking the photo looking for her after she disappeared in a wave of refugees. When she was found in 2002, she wasn't grateful, she was pissed....and looked like she was 60 years old.
After losing a husband and a child, she received asylum in Italy in 2021 and is living life outside of the public eye. (Like in 99.9% of her life.) There's a lot of symbolism in that picture.
Winner: The End of Mussolini
If you google "the end of Mussolini" the search engine, not so subtly, asks: "Are you sure you want to see this?"
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Why is Mussolini's execution photo so important? It is the embodiment of the phrase "fuck around and find out."
Adolf Hitler was the leader of the Axis as Mussolini was portrayed as his buffoonish sidekick.
But Mussolini wasn't a cartoon character, he was evil and his own citizens were the ones who beat him up real good and strung him up at the end. Italy suffered, around, 300,000 military deaths, but 150,000 Italians died due to his brand of fascism.
Hitler wasn't afraid of a show trial in Britain, he was afraid the Soviets were going to treat him like a candy-filled pinata, that's why he killed himself.
Many dictators don't get what they deserve, they end up like Idi Amin, retiring to Saudi Arabia.
The last world leader to get the Mussolini treatment was Muammar Gaddafi. Gaddafi was a bad, bad, man, but when he died, world leaders, almost universally, condemned the way he died.
But crime victims and members of the military die in gruesome ways every single day. World leaders agree that there shouldn't be any deaths for any of their peers at the hands of an angry mob.
Being assassinated is one thing, being dragged into the streets and murdered by your own citizens is a whole different level of displeasure with your leadership.
You think any world leader today would govern differently if they thought their endgame was the same as Mussolini's?
Over at Rolling Stone, I saw the article: Why is Everyone Afraid of Hasan Piker?
I didn't even click on it.
Why is that important?
I wished I saved it, but I saw Conservative Kid ask:
"Why do Socialists and Communists say Real Socialism and Real Communism hasn't been tried yet?"
I don't go around saying "Real Fascism hasn't been tried yet. It will work better next time."
It was the best laugh I had in a long time.
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