Norman Rockwell Scares Me

Found this at work while doing overnight inventory. Some thoughts:

1. That is a military flag. It has fringe on it, thus, based on the large crowd consisting of multiple families, this is unlikely to be a military tribunal and more likely a parade. Or, that's a veteran, a couple of female spies, and four child soldiers with their handlers.

2. The kid half covered by the flag is having none of this. Based on his scowl and foreign-looking haircut, I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest his parents were beatniks with ties to a then-Soviet Bloc country who were investigated and had their reputation ruined by Senator McCarthy.

3. The fat little kid on the left is absolutely terrified of war, but sees it as an inevitability, where he will at least have a chance to prove his manhood, as his grandfather has so often expounded upon the virtues thereof.

4. His slightly older sister is utterly terrified. She sees the violence and civic engineering being implemented by the patriarchal military-industrial complex and fears her deeply heartfelt feminist leanings will be crushed under the weight of this and future administrations as men like her grandfather continue to cleanse the world of difference in thought and appearance, while maintaining and further consolidating their own power.

5. Her grandfather accuses her and constantly reminds her that her parts are filthy, just like the French prostitute his squad mates took turns having their way with so many years ago back in the Ardennes. Filthy, filthy parts.


Norman Rockwell, you subversive little minx, you.