What’s Wrong With Today’s Society Captured In 58 Though-Provoking Illustrations By Al Margen
We all know that nothing is perfect. Our modern society included. Many things are problematic and troubling, and even though we notice them, we are not too fast to work on fixing pressing social issues.
Al Margen, an illustrator from Buenos Aires, Argentina, creates depressing drawings pinpointing the world problems of our times. He creates dark drawings that are sometimes louder than words and are extremely thought-provoking. The author himself is very critical about his works and talks about them in a really artistic manner: "They are children of boredom, nonconformity or anger. <...> They are the representation of discarded ideas. They are the garbage of the subconscious. But they are more visceral and sincere than other sad drawings because they have no obligation to please. <...> Because they were born only by an impulse and nothing more. Because they were born to annoy because they show the problems with society."
Take a look at some of his satirical works on social problems below and let us know which one was your favorite.
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I love this one. I teach 7th grade science and this is one of the biggest things I'm trying to figure out how to fix in my class. When I want students to really think, they get so frustrated. They just want to know the minimum requirements to pass. So it's a big mental shift to go from doing enough to pass the test, to actually understanding concepts and applying them to your every day life. It's hard to get them to think strategically and use processing skills that are valuable in science class, but will REALLY be useful in life. Instead of just making them memorize a bunch of c**p that they'll forget the second they get the report card.
I think this illustration shows a different perspective than yours, more in the lines along "formal education suffocates creativity". Which is I believe is more like you say, creativity can only go as far as the person wants, I am thankful for school actually with out it there would be more idiots in the world. A person capable of critical thinking should be able to take only what they need.
Load More Replies...it reminds me the song "we don't need no education" meaning that education kills our power to think.. i don't know what to say
Do you mean "Another Brick in the Wall" by Pink Floyd? If so then I agree, the message is definitely similar.
Load More Replies...I liked a lot of these. However, this one seems to present a message that is absolutely not true. In stark contrast to what this illustration implies, it tends to be people who lack a formal education that feel that formal education "stops thinking" or that it "squelches creativity;" and it couldn't be further from the truth. I'd have to agree with Socrates when he said that education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel. Nearly every significant medical and technological breakthrough over the last several hundred years has been discovered and developed by men with advanced chemical engineering, civil and structural engineering, and Science based degrees. To say that education simply breaks a person's "light bulb" only to cover it with a graduation cap is ridiculous, and I feel truly sorry for anyone that lacks so much formal education that they actually believe this to be true.
Actually, today's university "education" has become "endoctrination" where only one type of thought is allowed.
Load More Replies...That's what I'm saying for kids. Not for mines but for those I want to hire as cheap, uneducated labour in the future!
Very subjective..depends on many things. School and university (judging by the hat) have a tremendous difference imo. While most modern schools try to conform their students into "mindless working hands", the right choice of university can expand your mind more than anything you ever imagined :D. In my student years I was one of the worst students of the whole school, bad grades, "rebellious attitude", basically I was labeled a bad seed; probably because i wasn't so manageable as the other kids i guess. A few years later, and after some ridiculous jobs, I realized how this life of servitude just isn't for me. I enrolled in a graphic design university which taught me so many-many things, I finally experienced a thirst for knowledge, a spark light up inside of me and I knew...that was it. Now I'm working with a friend as a free-lancing duo and i couldn't be happier and fulfilled....all thanks to a second class university that was able to show me the true bliss of education!
It really saddens me to see so many people blame education for this soul sucking situation we got in our schools. It's the system, not the subject.
Load More Replies...Too bad we do not live where we are free to challenge bad ideas that people promote in college but can not defend. You could be graded down if you don't go with the flow. Perception is not reality and yet it is not only taught as such, but those who question that ideology are called names like we are still in elementary school. ...sad
I see this & it's like whoever is over school curriculum forbids creativity, doesn't allow for individual thought & indoctrinates them with whatever they see fit!!! Most liberal colleges are that way & elementary, middle & high schools are following in their footsteps!!!
Here we are 7 years later and this is all worse than any of us could imagine
Really! You don't see the problem? Then you must be one of those eyes then.
Load More Replies...And fools cannot be convinced they have been lied to.
Load More Replies...The long nose represents the lies perpetuated by the media, and the consumer who is inundated with it.
don't believe everything you see and hear on the television... tv rots the mind and kills the spirit
The BIGGEST brainwashing machine ever is they lying liberal media, if a news source only praises & leaves out negative or bad things about one party (usually liberals) & only points out, alters, blatantly edits & misrepresentes what someone says or does to lead people down their hidden agenda & narrative, but if they constantly talk badly about, puts down one party, while praising, leaving out, never reporting on the thing the other side does or did wrong & NEVER uses unbiased reporting, then you better believe you can't trust them, to report is to be UNBIASED & if all you hear is their political opinion then it's NOT credible news!!!! We should NEVER know the political stance of a news anchor, news station or outlet!!!!
If somebody asks you to believe something always ask "WHY?" we've stopped asking why. Many of my teachers years ago always told us "Don't believe everything you read or ear" Truth can withstand questions but lies can't.
If only those parents had eyes to see what it does to their kids...
I don't know how many times I've heard someone say, "we're only staying together for the kids." People like this rarely raise a happy, well-adjusted child. For the love of God and you child(ren), do your ki a favor and end your toxic marriage.
Nah, that's how it worked even when I was kid. And it was really long time ago.
Many adults tend to talk without pause, and often times, unless they consciously work on such behaviors, they tend to constantly be waiting for their turn to speak within conversation. This means they are not truly tuning in and listening to what the other person is saying. This makes them, metaphorically, as the picture depicts: just mouths. Children on the other hand are highly absorbent and often in tune with their surroundings and senses. One essential way they absorb information is BY listening, so this child is just taking in all the negativity and mindless banter from parents that don't consider all that they are instilling. Parenting is SO MUCH MORE than what you say to your child or the rules you teach them. Everything you release out into the world is being used as a model for your child. The things you say to your partner, friends, even how you treat strangers, is how your child will model you. Act with compassion, kindness, curiosity...and your child will reflect this!
So powerful and amazing how this artist can capture that through art. This pic is so sad :'(
same with alcohol, vape, caffeine junk food. Everything if over will be poison to our body
The worst part is, people are aware of the effects cigarettes can have and yet smoking is still so prevalent.
People r aware of the effects of alcohol also.....how prevalent is Alcoholism (that kills, one way or another!!)!!?? They r aware of Junk/Fast Food...how many people suffer and die from Obesity or Heart problems (or whatever else) associated with obesity in this world????? Hello????? Come on people!!! It really isn't that difficult to use common sense and/or open ur eyes and see the WHOLE picture, not just the part U WANT to see and b***h about!!
Load More Replies...What's missing is the harm to the crowd around the smoking psychopath.
Stop already with 2nd hand smoke! You probably jog in car traffic..... way worse. I know you drive in traffic. And with that, my guess is Libtard!
Load More Replies...Think Anti-vaxer's. They will put anything into their body just not Vacinations
I believe that this is a commentary on all toxic substances one might ingest—lighting a fuse to a bomb; any bomb
The pain of addiction is a bomb we all carry, fire, bottle or knife and fork. It is man that destroys man, until man is no more.
I see here too much unnecessary c**p, when we should still be just kids.
Load More Replies...Idk what's worse this or having a parent that wouldnt let me just try s**t out, if I wasnt going to commit 110% then I wasnt allowed to do it... Unless it was something my mum WANTED me to do (read: stuff she wanted to leatn herself but wouldn't just go out and learn)
Too much pressure. Just let us be kids. Please
Load More Replies...This perfectly sums up the perpetuating demand of what media pushes into the minds of our girls, starting at a very young age, as the ultimate definition of beauty. They live the rest of their lives aspiring to meet an unattainable ideal, becoming the living role models for the next generation, continuing the cycle. Most of them don't understand, however, to get so thin means the body loses its menstrual cycle too. Why is that? Because the body no longer sees itself as fit to carry and sustain life. The very thing that makes her a woman (not the menses, but having the ability to be childbearing), her very own body disqualifies her. That's just one of the physiological effects. Of course the psychological effects are just as dangerous and earth-shattering. Please, don't let me make it sound as though this only affects the females either. Boys and men are just as affected too. It's truly a sad issue. It wasn't that long ago when beauty was gauged by a plump appearance and pale skin.
This is a scream for HELP! We need the antidote to the brainwashing about real image of beaty. We need to realize that Beaty is not a certain size, certain form and color. Beaty is about your health, inner freedom, confidence, self acceptance , self realization. Real Beaty comes from inside and nobody can take it away from us.. Beaty it is your ability to love, to give, to enjoy somebody’s success, to admit somebody’s achievements. If we get it right and can pass it to our kids, the world will be better.
Unfortunately, this aflicts older women more than is reported. My 87 year old mother in law starves herself because her boyfriend said she had a “pot”.
Some people act like they support nature when they are really just natue ruiners out of the cameras veiw, like the cat food commercial guy on the Garfield movie.
I think that it represents how so many superficial people claim that they are sensitive to the environment and to preservation of the planet, but it is only said and done for self promotion.
I think it's meant to mean the older woman is acting like a cougar....taking selfies like the kids.
I think you've hit it! The recycled thing is her boobs. Still not sure, though. This one is not as obvious as some.
Load More Replies...I hate people like this saying they love animals and are a vegetarian but they still wear fur, saying that they recycle but the really only recycle on saturdays ugh
An apt commentary on how we are slowing killing off entire species in the name of fashion.
A Savannah Cat? Subverting nature by cross breeding to make a desired species and claiming you're an ecologist. Egoist ecologist.
I know how it feels to walk up dollar stairs and be met with a d**k to the face
You need the resources, so it would be a stupid idea.
Load More Replies...If you are trying to get to the top for the money, you are prostituting yourself but in the end, the big man at the top will try and stop you.
I think this picture depicts the human trafficking that most of us buy into when we sell our dignity and self respect for more money or ignore how others are treated and in turn we receive more money
You choose to work 8-12 hours a day to make what one prostitute makes in an hour (or less). Who's the real person selling their dignity, eh? And fyi, who gave you the right to choose what is or isn't dignified and who can and can't use THEIR body for what?
Load More Replies...Until we, women start being like men. Learning how to work as a team, and help each other.
auch.. this is what i call a "sexist" mentality... using girls like they are objects. the society needs to stop this attitude.
I don't know if you've noticed behind your white-picket fence and protest signs, but most women market THEMSELVES like objects now-a-days.
Load More Replies...Men underestimating women, think they can take them as high as they want with money.
Right! This is what it reminds me...Silence!
Load More Replies...even we don't love money, we still need it in order to survive. wither we like it or not.
Load More Replies...It can be taken three ways: 1) Money is controlling him; 2) Those who need it the most are the poor and marginalized; 3) Politicians do not listen to the people who elected them and are out of control, cutting funds to programs that are meant to help the people mentioned in #2, while the rich get more and more.
The bill is just $1 (not much value) and is U.S. currency. The stockade is a form of punishment for committing a crime. No mouth (can't speak, and no say in the U.S.). The United States puts no value on criminals and takes away their rights to vote.
Or, crime does not pay, will land you in jail and take away your right to vote.
Load More Replies...Money is a tool to get dreams come true. But, some dreams do not need money. So be careaful . Let the money be fluid as water.. Always comiing and going. Great drawing .I think one of the best.
I hate seeing old buildings knocked down, or old businesses going out, or anything like that. It makes me so sad.
That's why our block, which is in an area with a ton of new buildings going up, has landmark service from the government, which means that since our houses are old, they can't be knocked down. It also means that we have to keep them looking old. We had to go through a long process to change the WINDOWS
Load More Replies...He needs to tie balloons to his house and fly away. It can be done! I've seen it somewhere before
This not only speaks to the buildings but to people too who are deemed to have lost their value as they age. Tick-tock, your time is up...
the very ill of our society. The essence of what it means to grow old in this world.
Business empires kicking out the older Mom and Pop businesses who can't afford to compete.
I remembered this public park in our community with so many old trees that I love to climbed up when I was a kid. Then it's gone now. Replaced with new houses and subdivision 😫 I don't have a phone or camera when I was a kid so I don't even have any commemorative photos of it. It's just all in my mind now 🤔😃
It is the way society treats old people and objects that are in their way. Scares me
Or, pick your expression because they are all FAKE
Load More Replies...instead of being alone.. people choose to be with someone just for some time.. i don't think it is a wise decision
Or, in a certain (and maybe too personal) way, the poster of movie "Being John Malkovitch"
Load More Replies...Choosing one's own direction and being brave enough to change it when you want to.
the masses follow the wrong concept, always... when u see a vaste majority of people doing, saying the same think without logical thinking.. it means they are brain washed
lol. I get he's multidirectional, but why a weather vane?
Load More Replies...Most people missed the point here, which means that they don't have a clue of what is happening to this planet. It is human farming.
Humans are being chipped from birth and are being farmed.
Load More Replies...Sad, in many cultures women are baby making machines and there isn't enough food to go around
Baby makers overpopulating a world already unable to cope with resource demands.
Cops sometimes have a hand in crime. Judges have a hand in making laws.
That middle image reminds me more of the Nazi regime, than that of "police"
There is a bigger hand that controls the judges as can be seen in the illustration.
Load More Replies...Are you saying the courts control the cops and the cops control the crooks?
I interpret this as the courts using laws that give the power to the state to rob you
Load More Replies...When the mind's defense mechanism is to drown the possibility of thoughts in music.
Brainlessly focusing on the same song (thoughts, ideas, beliefs) to the exclusion of anything new
Music reduces anxiety and pain, can help you sleep, it exercises and stimulates all the parts of your brain. Soo... You got wrong idea here
Wrong idea? We are all trying to interpret the artist's vision which about things wrong in the world today.
Load More Replies...Drowning your troubles in music, instead of thinking them through and sorting them out.
You have to keep your brain outside to listen to the meaningless music made these days
Peace does not always bring about freedom. And not hard to become a prisoner of peace. Bane said it best, victory has defeated you.
Can you tell an example of imprisoned by peace? Don't start with totalitarian regimes. They are not peaceful.
Load More Replies...When you have peace, you fear losing it and become willing to give up some of your freedom to maintain it. Before you know it, you are no longer as free and can no longer enjoy or appreciate that you still have the peace.
Meh, just some high brow talking. I dunno what I'm talking about.
Load More Replies...There is no longer any justice....the system is broken, or put another, it has been infected over the years by so much "non justice" that it criminalizes things that aren't criminal. Ex.- it has been demonstrated that if you are busted for possession of Marijuana, you are punished as harshly as someone in possession of coke, or heroine or more dangerous drugs. Marijuana is about as harmless, or less so in some cases, as sugar.
Load More Replies...It all comes down to fame and fortune. The artist makes the music the audience wants, becoming his audience and losing himself, then he fades into oblivion and is forgotten.
be, sing, create what people want.. i don't like this attitude of some people. what do you think?
People see themselves in the song and follow the artist. The artist tries to appease the crowd and loses himself.
I think , socety tries to make you look mad if you have different opinions ...or ideas
you are labeled mad when you have a free mind, not tethered to societal norms and rules
The closed mind wants to oppress the free thinker in order to have control over everything.
No need for your identity in a business run society
Load More Replies...this reminds me of a saying " are you working to live, or living to work?"
It's hard to be a kid in a money-less family, when the parents won't change their lifestyles to the lesser amount of money they now have. You have to give up so much of yourself to try to make things better, as far as money goes, and it all goes down the drain anyway. It really, really sucks.
Many of these pictures are dark and quite terrifying. Coming from a low-income household, this one hits home to me. Too real at times.....scary stuff...
As always, you have no idea what you are talking about. Go back to your atrocious MS paint submissions.
Load More Replies...Look at that. He's only chained by his mind. His feet and arms are let free. And the chains leading to his mind are connected to negligible obstacles. It's the mind that's keeping you away from love...
The man has chained all his posesions, but the lady broke free and flew away.
Load More Replies...He thought she was simply another object to control. But she had a mind of her own. He could follow, but he is chained to his old habits. When will he realize she is worth more than all his possessions? #FreeYourself
I think what you said is more relevant than other's post.
Load More Replies...And he attached his mind to those things because he knows those things won't leave him. Maybe he's been hurt by people too many times to ever trust people again and can only find happiness and consumerism
He believes she is another thing he owns (like the furniture) but she has escaped his ownership
I took this more as our theoretical enslavement to the property we own. He can’t follow her because everything he has is his home and it’s contents. To peruse her would be to risk losing everything.
Almost the story of my life. I would give up everything,sell everything to follow but losing my income I wouldn’t be able to support my son and her in the country that she went back to. So im chained here and she can be free
Load More Replies...Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose. He's chained by his possessions, and she doesn't want to be a possession.
It can also be that man, who is usually the provider, is tied to all of the provisions, while the woman can simply walk away freely at any time. Since the debt and everything is on him, the weight of being a provider. Not women's empowerment. If it was it would show something different where she actually did something and not simply walk away and leave the burden on him.
I think it's a fantasy to suppose in this day and age that the man is the only provider and even if he is then he alone is tied to all the provisions and the woman can walk away at any time. The artists message is intended to be understood by the masses. While there are men who may feel bound by financial responsibility, suggesting that men may feel victimized by having to provide while the women are free to trolop off into the sunset without a care is not the norm.
Load More Replies...He thought of her as his possession and that's why she's leaving.
Shackled to the internet. So true. So many people live their lives on the Net, they forget there's a life away from it.
Indoctrination, we do this to ourselves.... rarely do you find education, it's mostly indictrination! Another reason Americans have this mindset that they are superior to other countries, even statewide. California and New York are way better than Idaho! Really, we are all humans, we are all in this together.!!! We are constantly divided by so many things that we end up hating one another!!!! It's not easy breaking from this cycle!
That is probably because there are so many lonely people out there that just want to be connected.
I think it's more to do with stereotyping and how we view people based on a few arbitrary "defining" characteristics. Rich people are greedy, fat people only think about food, police officers are just out to stop people from having fun, and a beautiful woman is just a beautiful body. Flawed thinking.
Every pne has his drug (or poer on other people) ! MONEY , FOOD , POWER , AND sex ..
it seems more like a depiction of the seven sins, the money man being greed, then gluttony, the naked lady is lust, I imagine the old man is sloth, just the cop I havent figured out yet
Load More Replies...8 deadly sins? 1) Gula (gluttony) 2) Luxuria/Fornicatio (lust, fornication) 3) Avaritia (avarice/greed) 4) Superbia (pride, hubris) 5) Tristitia (sorrow/despair/despondency) 6) Ira (wrath) 7) Vanagloria (vainglory) 8) Acedia (sloth)
Shows our society, business men and money, over indulgence,police and their dodgy doings, elderly weak and women sexual objectified
Families in cages; physical, mental and financial slaves to evil men.
The one think too much of the past, the other one is embarrassed by the future and the third one can't live the present day, so they all come here to take their "carpe diem" pils...
i think this is another ode to mental illness, some people need their "pill" to be on the same "level" or "speed" as everyone else
Load More Replies...Left to right: 1 is stuck, in a rut, and immobilized in life. 2 is always rushing to think about the future and so can't experience the present. Likewise, 3 dwells on the past and misses what is happening now. They all need to be in the moment and enjoy life now, but they have no mouths, so can not take in the pill that represents the present and all its play, or fun, so they remain in the sorry state they are in.
Wouldnt this mean that we all are drumming to different beats and they wanna give us this one "prescription" or "solution" to put us all to the same "speed"?. It also makes me think of peeps with ADHD, how their mind run faster than what they can handle, or how depression gets us stuck on the past, always on rewind...
Load More Replies...Can't rewind. Can't fast forward. Can't hit pause. Proving we have no control over time. That's a hard pill to swallow for some.
Replace pill bottles with any other addictive behavior, very few are able to face each day completely sober......a very honest and telling representation
One man. Stuck in the past, one man forever thinking ahead another man just stuck no one living in the present.
I think that it's more like the first person want's to "pause" the life and give himself a break from the present, the second one wants everything to go by fast and not to deal with the present problems and the third one is living in the past and doesn't want to think about neither the future nor the present and they all escape from their problems in one way. Doing drugs.
Turn off consumer mentality. We're supposed to care for the earth, not consume it.
You're consuming Bored Panda, for example. Which, like many other websites, has ads. We are all hypocrites, trapped in this maze of somewhat shallow infotainment.
Load More Replies...The consumerism agenda is controlling our behaviour and "pushing our buttons" instead of vice-versa.
persuasion and control. Actually theres a podcast by sam harris with that title which is very informative.
With these drawings, as I believe most of us get what the artist is trying to say here, its clear that we really are in a dystopian society and we just don't see it because we don't want to see it. sigh...
Trying to exercise artistic freedom and getting bogged down by the hateful critics. Every. Damn. Time.
I think this is supposed to show that creativity frees you and those scared to express themselves are slaves
To add, they do not want her to escape.... people tend to police one another to the point that we are hardly ever able to express or be free.....
Load More Replies...Society tries to stop you being free from it's out-dated ideals and opinions, and making up your own mind.
Shes trying to get educated, which would allow her to fly but they're holding her back.
Really? I see power stripping away dignity, strength, and freedom from helpless individuals & obliterating them
The "Jack Boot" is a historic, universal symbol of the fascist state. Here we see a single, struggling family trying to protect itself from being crushed by the boots (ie: the government).
Efforts of trying to shield each other, the ones we care for, from the constant stompings from life, the boots designed and ready to keep you down, in a pattern consistant enough to compare to a steady rain, in which you’re barely surviving without ever getting a moment to stand on your own.
It's alwasy been mechanical, humans just decided it was intimate.
Load More Replies...Rather an awkward night because the key clearly did not fit in the lock.
Doesn't look like his key would fit in her. Did they settle for someone who doesn't complete them?
Everyone thinks in black or white. No one SEES the colorful spectrum that life can be....
we have too much information that we cant put them all in a right order/place.
You can see the hour glass and the dates from when this person was born... it's clearly biological clock
Load More Replies...26 year old, constantly bombarded by what others think of her. She seems partner less, no children, and being judged by others because of this.....very sad....I may also be totally wrong and misreading this one.......
How about he who has help and access to better technology is going to produce more than one who's working with old technology on their own. It's about the inherent advantages in the class disparity that leads those who don't even see what they have as an advantage to think they're simply better, or that others are less: less clever, less creative, less able.
First guy is cheating off the one in the middle, who has the ideas. The guy sitting is burnt out.
Yeah, that guy on left is definitely up to no good. The guy on the right seems to have given up on hope. Has run out of ideas? Maybe. The one in the middle clearly comes up with a bunch of ideas but while asleep the other guy is taking those ideas and writing them up as his own!!!!
Destroying the protesters. Government repressing the people's right to complain and protest against it.
i think its mostly about self image. the most important is not how we look but how we think we look and how we feel about it
Killing yourself dieting. Thinking you'll be happier being slimmer than you really are.
anorexia. and womens body image in general........this desire to be so thin is so deadly.
We see ourselves as we would like to be, rather than who we actually are.
Yes it is the thinker but it how deteriorated growth of the thinker due to the society has caused a drain in his ability to think
Load More Replies...Each seed of thought has sprouted a tree of questions, not knowledge. Each tree has yielded less and less questions. The next seed will not yield any questions. At the back, the questions have already wilted and died without any answers flower knowledge. The mind of an adult, but the body of an infant clearly, he needs help changing judging by the diaper, but it looks like the mind is constipated. Or We overthink our lives, we keep questioning ourselves, planting seeds of doubt, the only thing a thinker can plant is doubt. It starts with one question and eventually it becomes trees of questions wilting in a dessert of doubt, while the thinker will never outgrow the seeds of doubt clouding his mind. Stop over thinking start doing even if it means failing, answers will come from the experiences, not the what ifs that impede us when we let doubt take control.
Humanity has failed to evolve. We've been given so much time, and asked all the questions, but we still act like children, as if the fate of the world wasn't in our hands.
"Man's" ability to think, conceive, and create new notions is still in an infant stage. Although we may think we know so much, we really know so little, and all we can do as a species is continue to ponder.
a man baby with a strong arm leaving a path of destruction and uncertainty
Love is blind. You will open the door to your heart and let them walk right in if you don't know the person and only go by appearances, and they could be hiding their intent to do you harm.
Love is blind, the heart wants what the heart wants even though the woman is carrying an axe. Not all woman carry axes with them. I'm lucky to have a wonderful, caring, loving, and providing woman in my life...not everyone is so fortunate though.....
We are rarely invested into things as much as we should be because of distractions..
No more self creativity, ready served chewed up ideas - empty promise
The guy in the middle see and thinks of the women only sexually, from his fly, and to him, the woman are only a "piece of a*s." These women are more than happy to oblige, because he is their pimp, or sugar daddy or seen as a big deal and someone of power and money.
The crosses are in a can marked souvenir. You get a souvenir from a place you visit, but don't really live in. Some people go to church, but don't really live the truth. Sitting on the can is a person that represent either someone who has died, or is dying. He is relying on, or resting on the fact he went to church. He opened the can and looked up to God or heaven and said, with the fake halo he strapped on "Look at all the times I went to church or acted like a religious person." But it is not enough. Man can't earn salvation.
I really need this explained to me. I only see the merchandising of religion.
you got ti study after seeking . Seek with all your heart and honest intentions , and you will find .
Load More Replies...Expecting religion is enough to make you holy when you haven't done anything to deserve it (sitting on the can, manufactured halo, just opening the can of religion is considered enough proof of their suffering)
Religion is not an answer, spiritualism may be, but that may only serve as a back up to religion failing. Maybe it's best to look inward for answers. It may be the true way to face adversity.....js
The pretending parson selling canned religion and waiting to be struck down.
No. The halo is held by his neck. And crosses are in a can. Showing how religion is manufactured and sickly brainwashes people.
Load More Replies...What is so bad about surrogacy? There are other ways to make money; women choose this and sign a contract.
What is she is pregnant and now her parents are responsible for taking full care of her and her every need.
Probably too poor to keep the baby, comforting herself with the money, all she will be left with.
Load More Replies...Baby for sale, I think she is pregnant and they are paying her.
Load More Replies...Those are ice cubes in a glass of alcohol, presumably whiskey. Alcohol can make you think you're happy when really it is sucking the joy from your life.
Drinking to make you happy and help you forget really how sad your life is....
The ice cubes are going to melt and they will both drown tangled up in each others tragic comedy, the tears of the past , happy and sad, puddles the ground beneath. Alcoholism is a spiral of highs and lows, eventually drowning the soul.
Drama, (tragedy and comedy, highs and lows) spring up from the life of an alcoholic.
Her blood, sweat, and tears have gone down the drain as a college graduate.
Absolutely! Her Blood, Sweat and Tears are going down the drain as she falters after graduation
Load More Replies...I think it has to do with the criminal interest rate of student loans + having an education doesn't guarantee employment.
Or that the cost of getting a higher education will bleed you dry & make you miserable .
Load More Replies...Is this about oil industry, the figure has cars instead of feet, pipelines and is draining drops. Perhaps it refers to the human and technological resources invested in the industry.
They graduate with the pain of being buried in student loans and working in a job that they didn't study for because society requires previous work experience that they can't get because of that same requirement.
Moon = dream/ Pipedream? College education is a pipedream - "an unattainable or fanciful hope or scheme".
You can take the girl out of the city, but you'll never take the city out of the girl
My first thought was a CEO, now confined by the monster of hard work and success, sitting in the company office she oversees, but longing to be a part of the free world outside??
The desire to walk to the beat of your own drum but you dont know what that is, what you are meant to do.
Fishing is used to relax. This man listens to music to relax but listens to multiple songs to find the right tune
Dude takes pills either for drug addiction or Rx and it alters his state of mind so that he is unable to write. Everything that comes from him goes to waste hence the trashcan
Students giving blood, and being guinea pigs for pharmaceutical trials to make money towards their student loans, and trying to relax by using cannabis.
This is a picture of someone "running on" only 4 horsepower, which isn't very much, hence they are "falling asleep". Sleep deprivation and not enough energy to do all we need to.
There are 7 gaslines, there are 3 "unseen" nozzles. Half horse, half human. There is much more to this picture, although I'm having difficulty understanding this one.....it isn't the only picture I had difficulty understanding.....
Finger nails have a nail bed, so the roses under the nail of the fingers with wedding rings are "a bed of roses". The barbed wire represents a prison you can't escape from. What they though was bliss when they got married turns out to be a life sentence. The man and woman are popping up from a toaster. They are done, dry. Their love has dried up. From her head is a spool of silk. A spring silkworm produces silk until it dies. There is a Chinese thought that likewise, giving one's thought to another person is like a spring silkworm producing silk until it dies. He has a banana on his head. There is a book called Mr. Bananahead at Home about Mr. Bananahead who tries hard to do all the chores on Mrs. Bananahead's list but can't get them right. So the symbolism on their heads means even though they both have tried to to please each other, in the end it is no good, if that is all they do. It is too consuming and they dry up as people.
Marriage. It can be a rollerToaster, rose pedals one day, and rose thorns the next..
For some reason, the first thing I thought was... wow, that looks painful. xD
The concept of happily every after is a joke. Marriage takes a great deal of time and effort for couples to stay together. After a while, it gets tedious. One or both couples start to lose interest after a while. Later down the road, they divorce. And divorce rates are increasing.
He's lived a long time. He's experienced a lot. He has stories to tell. He has dreams and memories, good and bad. He has knowledge and skills to share. He just doesn't have anyone to share with except the diary. When he realized no one cares, no one will ever read the diary, no one will ever share his life, no one needs him, he destroyed all evidence that a lonely person existed. No one will notice his absence except for those who have to clean up the mess and dispose of his property. He feels like he never WAS and now he never WILL be, so what's keeping him here in an unfulfilled, unendurable life?
I used Google translate and it's Latin and this is ad close as I could get to what it says. "Dear diary. Rero velesseni quatur? Qui berovit abor molum rentros a qui cum nonseni dolenimusam, ut volorei cimagnimus cate ne ipidundis se" "Dear diary. Rero velesseni formed? And they who, when they nonseni dolenimusam from the Berovo her abortion molum rentrere, so that volorei cimagnimus the chains which were that he should not ipidundis"
The life of social media. Everyone posts looking for validation via likes. Only to find opposition from people close to them.
Competing is a zero sum game! if you win someone looses and vice versa
Butting heads over differing likes and dislikes (or opinions) Both are fat, or full, which could mean arrogance. So an arrogant society butting heads over likes and dislikes, which are subjective anyway and could be trivial.
Social Media, wanting to amass lots of 'friends' to get approval and likes but in the outside world the friend is just nothing more than a mouse click.
She is a prostitute. Her tongue holds powerful men in her prison. Bc with the ability to blackmail she has power over them with the words she speaks. The only one who pleases her is her drugs where she can find escape from what it is she does.
I think these comments say a lot more about the people who post them than about the drawing.
Training wheels (support or how people are trained) on the megaphone head (loudness, broadcasting) could be judges, lawyers, journalist, or lobbyist, upholding the law that is keeping a dying, prostituted, insane (crazy hair) legal system alive, and that very system that feeds the lawyers is keeping them in bondage with all it's forked tongued language.
Yeah I thought that, only slightly differently. I think the stand that holds the drip looks like the symbol for law? ( Law_large.png
) -- I think your megaphone bit is as possibly a funnel she drops the men into, which then feeds her drug habit.
Educated citizens (they all have suits) trying to get milk from corrupt state (a b***h) but they get transformed in its food/blood
Walking on a tightrope with no way out, even though the tightrope hurts
Ayer means yesterday in Spanish and his mind is a pencil being shaven (wasting away) because all he can focus on is the past.
Ayer (yesterday or history) repeats itself. The man with a sharp mind and sharp teeth (his words are bitting) has no body. This person keeps repeating the same mistakes over and over and therefor has no one.
Do you know the artist? all your interpretations are spot on!
Load More Replies...ayer means yesterday in spanish. maybe this means the person is too focused on yesterday
Can't let go of the past. He has to keep looking back which prevents him from moving forward.
Thinking about yesterday might make one think it sharpens the mind but it only takes pieces from you and hurts your mind dwelling on the past
Sorry, can't talk now--must continue to write same idea over and over ......
I think level headed makes sense, but I think there is more to this. This could be saying that only a straight (level and plum) (not gay) blockhead who salutes to leadership will go far (decorated) and be recognized in the military.
There are 2 things colored here the level and the pendulum tied to his finger. So the question here is why his finger. Maybe it's not that he's being hypnotized. More like he's hypnotizing everyone else into thinking he's levelheaded.
The pendulum is used to hypnotize a person. So I understand this as a solider is hypnotized in to believing in "patriotism" and fighting in wars driven by greed. You have to be level-headed in order to be controlled.
Square an average Joe. They're all the same brainwashed killers . Intellect only fed by orders but they have to remain stable to cope
She looks at him as her knight in shining armor. She sees the man as her warrior, her savior. People generally look to other people to complete them.
The lonely [wax?] woman thinks she's found a kindred spirit in the [seemingly-waxen] figure looking back at her, but the image is simply the top part of a [Lovecraftian] monster.
Living life by the positioning of the planets, and the words of horoscopes.
Or it could be she's mother nature and here comes pollution to destroy the planet
Women think men will set her free from the thing around her neck that keeps her bound but men see woman as an item to conquer hence the bull. The bull is meant to fight. Women seek freedom and men seek conquering in relationships.
"What's wrong with today's society". Are you kidding? This has been around since the dawn of man. Parents arguing in front of their kids? People lying to others? Smoking is bad? If you think working 9-5 in a computer chair sucks, then imagine working five in the morning until seven at night in a coal mine during the 1800's with no safety regulations. Oh yeah #5? What's that about? Going to college destroys ideas? Nah going to college is a means of expanding your knowledge in a particular field. /rant
Exactly. It should be "What's wrong with an industrialised society".
Load More Replies...Almost as boring as complaints about pessimism.
Load More Replies...The author needs a little introspection regarding his view towards women as it has delivered another of society's failings--a deeply sexist and misogynist view of women. All women in his art are depicted as sexual objects or in the domestic sphere. He has eliminated them from all other aspects of life. This is deeply troubling and shows a severe disconnect with reality, illustrating that his illustrations deeply lack verifiable evidence of the world's problems.
If Bored Panda has an article titled "Satirical Cartoons show what's wrong w/society", its gonna be a bunch of pessimistic BS. Trust me.
This disgusts me. People should try to see the good in the world. We should be aware of the bad things but there cartoons make it seem like that's all there is.
Yup artistically, it's always easier to provoke emotion and thinking with sad and depressing imagery. It's harder to do so with happiness and joy. Why do you think Oscars and all other similar artistic awards are won vast majority of the time on the back of tragic imagery? Haha.
Load More Replies...I didn't see much of society, at-large, here. The drawings are hugely autobiographical. The artist is steeped in contempt, contempt for education, women, the family unit and mental health treatment. He seems to be aware of some social ills, but still trapped in those same tired conventions. I did enjoy the one linking the parasitic relationship between the courts, law enforcement and the criminals.
I feel like art captures emotions, be it in music or any other form of art. Your simply relate or you don't. This artist is amazingly talented and gets his message across. Job well done
"What's wrong with today's society". Are you kidding? This has been around since the dawn of man. Parents arguing in front of their kids? People lying to others? Smoking is bad? If you think working 9-5 in a computer chair sucks, then imagine working five in the morning until seven at night in a coal mine during the 1800's with no safety regulations. Oh yeah #5? What's that about? Going to college destroys ideas? Nah going to college is a means of expanding your knowledge in a particular field. /rant
Exactly. It should be "What's wrong with an industrialised society".
Load More Replies...Almost as boring as complaints about pessimism.
Load More Replies...The author needs a little introspection regarding his view towards women as it has delivered another of society's failings--a deeply sexist and misogynist view of women. All women in his art are depicted as sexual objects or in the domestic sphere. He has eliminated them from all other aspects of life. This is deeply troubling and shows a severe disconnect with reality, illustrating that his illustrations deeply lack verifiable evidence of the world's problems.
If Bored Panda has an article titled "Satirical Cartoons show what's wrong w/society", its gonna be a bunch of pessimistic BS. Trust me.
This disgusts me. People should try to see the good in the world. We should be aware of the bad things but there cartoons make it seem like that's all there is.
Yup artistically, it's always easier to provoke emotion and thinking with sad and depressing imagery. It's harder to do so with happiness and joy. Why do you think Oscars and all other similar artistic awards are won vast majority of the time on the back of tragic imagery? Haha.
Load More Replies...I didn't see much of society, at-large, here. The drawings are hugely autobiographical. The artist is steeped in contempt, contempt for education, women, the family unit and mental health treatment. He seems to be aware of some social ills, but still trapped in those same tired conventions. I did enjoy the one linking the parasitic relationship between the courts, law enforcement and the criminals.
I feel like art captures emotions, be it in music or any other form of art. Your simply relate or you don't. This artist is amazingly talented and gets his message across. Job well done
