Life, 1919-08-07 · page 26 of 44
Life — August 7, 1919 — page 26: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
The top cartoon depicts a romantic triangle: two men competing for a woman's affection on a beach. Each man blames his rival's advantages—the older man cites youth and looks; the younger man cites money—a satirical comment on how people rationalize romantic failure by focusing on external factors rather than their own shortcomings. The "Anti-Utopia" story is a political satire mocking ideological extremism. It describes a government run entirely on "anti-" principles, where citizens become universally miserable because opposition and reform movements have been eliminated. The system becomes so absurd that "two antis make a pro," trapping people in logical contradiction. The final irony: the last dissenter is executed for praising the system itself—satire on how totalitarian regimes eliminate even their own supporters. The "Head in School" section shows a teacher asking for a "dead language" example, with a student responding about "the Wild and Woolly West," suggesting that once-vibrant American frontier culture has become obsolete—likely commentary on changing American society.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
The Older Man: 1 WAVEN'T A CHANCE AGAINST HiS YOUTH AND GOOD LOOKS. The Younger Man: THER ISN'T A RAY OF HOPE FOR ME WITH ALL HIS MONEY AGAINST ME, Anti-Utopia Heard in School OVERNMENT of the Antis, for E : Give an example of a dead language. . the Antis and by the Antis had at rounc America: “What are you going to have? last been set up. Instantly it was a pronounced success. The census-taker reported a greater per capita unhappiness than the world had ever known be- fore. Everybody was unhappy. The Ins were unhappy because they had only a minority to rule over instead of a majority to overrule, as in the past. The Outs were equally unhappy because the Ins monopolized all the anti- issues, thus depriving them of their rightful niche in his- tory as the Original Little Group of Valiant Opponents. Crusades were dead. Campaigns were done for. Drives and nation-wide educational movements lost their punch and expired. You couldn't start anything, because any- thing you started had already been started and finished. You couldn't favor anything, because that was forbidden hy the Anti-Utopian Constitution. You couldn't oppose thing, because all things in Anti-Utopia were anti- things, and any person caught anti-ing an anti-thing was liable to be punished for favoring something, under the Supreme Court ruling that two antis made a pro. This made the plight of the Outs all the more unbearable One by one they died or were done away with, the last of them being taken into custody for having shouted “ Long live Anti-Utopia! "—a treasonable offense. He was tried, convicted and sentenced to Suffer the full penalty of the THE WILD AND WOOLLY WEST law of Anti-Utopia—anti-life. AFTER EVERYTHING NAUGHTY IS PROHIBITED comicbooks.coml