Confidence (1933) stars Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, formerly of Disney but here in his Universal years. Also featured are President Franklin D. Roosevelt (sans leg braces) and the Great Depression. There's something really bold in black-and-white cartoons, daring and courageously surreal.
It's silly, poignant, and innocent, but the message of confidence is, while important, not really what got us through the Depression or what made this country great.
It's optimism. Our forebears always looked to the future with optimism. Today we battle those consumed by its opposite: cynicism. The cynics find no good in anything, certainly not in government by the people, and prefer to burn everything down.
I would imagine a cartoon is not going to solve that schism in today's society. But I wish somebody would try.
It takes real guts to be optimistic when life is really rough, and your chickens are sick.
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