This topic has 14 replies, 8 voices, and was last updated 7 years, 2 months ago by 
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Quote –
“But for every man there exists a bait which he cannot resist swallowing.” – Friedrich Nietzsche
Original Painting –
The Sower, 1944 by James GleesonAbout Painting –
I think that there was always the hope that it could influence the way people thought about war. That it could alert people to its horrors and prevent it occurring again. You see, I was born during the First World War in 1915, and my earliest experiences were with people who were in that war or remembered the war very vividly, and then, just when I was beginning to paint, the Second World War began. So war became a kind of lurking terror in my mind from infancy through to late adolescence, when it was all building up again for another one.
I had Millet’s Sower in mind when I painted it. This is a 20th-century ‘Sower’ and the dislocated limbs represent humanity out of gear, the bleak landscape represents the present period, whereas Millet’s landscape showed fertility.
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Here’s the whole quote: “Every man has his price.” This is not true. But for every man there exists a bait which he cannot resist swallowing. To win over certain people to something, it is only necessary to give it a gloss of love of humanity, nobility, gentleness, self-sacrifice – and there is nothing you cannot get them to swallow. To their souls, these are the icing, the tidbit; other kinds of souls have others.”
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Gleeson’s quote does sum it up perfectly, but actually comparing the two paintings is interesting. Gleeson’s Sower is so different that if you didn’t know the title or what he was doing with it, I’m not sure you could identify it as a riff on Millet’s. The warped nature of Gleeson’s, in every different way, really emphasizes just how much war can alter a person.
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All I want to do is make jokes about this, about how each one of us could have our own “Pennywise waiting in the sewer” meme. (Mine would just say “Noah found a kitten!”) The really scary thing is that I could probably name the bait for lots of people on here.
The question remains, what do we give up if we take it? Our unity? Our safety? Will we eventually lose sight of what’s right and wrong? To sum up the information from yesterday, if we have to sacrifice the Mackenzies of the world, are we any better than the OSDM?
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If Noah found a kitten, I’d be right there with ya @lilmsfancpants
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The really scary thing is that I could probably name the bait for lots of people on here.
Oh man do I really want you to do this @lilmsfancpants.
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Exactly, @kevin. This seems to be calling out the fact that many of us have referred to this as a war. Maybe this is showing what the consequences of a war will actually be, and how it will change us.
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@chelsea It certainly feels like we’re being baited with yesterday’s events.
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This seems to be calling out the fact that many of us have referred to this as a war. Maybe this is showing what the consequences of a war will actually be, and how it will change us.
Oh damn, @erisbonn, this is great. The full quote = how easy it can be to manipulate people into doing things they’d otherwise consider beyond the pale. The painting = what that actually does to a person.
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@chelsea With the OSDM it goes even further too. They are so, so proficient at creating bait. Looking back at Addison last year; they presented a young woman and let people season the bait to their own liking. They didn’t even need to do a lot of work! As they said, Addison was a mirror they held up to everyone and we did the rest.
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