A contemporary topic that can be tied with the poster is Russia’s blaming of Ukraine for the current conflict between Ukraine and Russia. In both scenarios, the oppressors attempt to justify their act of violence via dehumanizing their opposition, or some form of making them seem ‘less’ than themselves. To start, our poster has the saying ‘Happiness is a Warm Club,’ the phrase in which had been popularized by The Beatles and essentially says that the usage of a gun ensures joy, then by replacing the ‘gun’ with ‘club’, being the weapon of choice for riot officers then, satirizes that the police find pleasure, or some kind of gratification, in beating the protesters for the BSU at San Francisco State at the time, the majority of which were part of minority groups. The phrase’s meaning is solidified by the officer in the poster having a rather snarky grin on their face, displaying sinister intent as they hold their club. Indeed, the authorities at these riots had built a narrative that these groups are somehow deserving of the harm from police on top of exercising repression by even permitting the violence to begin with, with not even a reactionary measure to mitigate injuries and whatnot, proving my earlier statement. But this can still be tied to the modern conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

A similar structure of conflict can be seen in the aforementioned conflict between Russia and Ukraine, whereas to justify their invasion on Ukrainian land, Russia deploys several narratives built off of flawed, olden ideologies. Namely, the ‘One People’ argument. This explains that Ukraine and Russia are historically and culturally one nation, meant to justify the need to take ground that Russia believes truly belongs to them. (RUSI) This has some merit in the shared histories between the two, namely their common descendance from Kyivan Rus’. However, this claims that relation between the peoples makes one type of peoples, which isn’t the case, as seen with English, Scots and Irish. Overall, a hard idea to try and justify with. Additionally, it oversimplifies the complex development of the two nations over the centuries and undermines the oppression of Ukrainians as their own people under Polish-Lithuanian and Soviet rule. One could also argue, due to the patriotism the Russian military ensues via programs like Yunarmiya, a military youth program, that the armed forces of Russia takes pleasure in their invasion of Ukraine, as the soldiers are taught to be particularly patriotic from a young age, and are to think that they’re fighting a truly evil enemy who has taken land from them, or perhaps rebels to an empire. Although, this is a harsh generalization and dehumanization of the force. Yet still, one can see Russia’s constant need to make any narrative they can to make their violence seem rational.

To tie it together, the oppressing sides in both of the presented scenarios are attempting to justify their violence, and maybe even take some form of pride in their duties, the former scenario being very likely. The conflict between Russia and Ukraine is but an example of this phenomenon repeating itself, and it can surely continue on a larger scale. The poster, though very relevant for the time, was really much bigger than whatever was happening at the time, still relevant on a geopolitical scale. The message behind the poster holds up well, it’s like a message to all those who have faced oppressors in this manner. That their opposition likes the force, the bloodshed to fill a false agenda they cling to.

Works Cited