At the outset of my project, I wanted to avoid writing about politics, and look where I am now. Anyways, I'll be looking at both political propaganda put out by Obama and Augustus and media about them put out by the public. I won't be analyzing each man's character; I'll be looking at the persona that is created by them and forced upon them. The connecting thread between Augustus and Obama that I latched upon was the theme of hope. Augustus came to power when Rome was embroiled in civil war, and he put an end to it. I also saw this between Nero and Obama, but the idea of propaganda is stronger between Augustus and Obama. Also, Augustus isn't remembered for fiddling while Rome burned, which helps.
The afternoon class is in the French Revolution now(although, I don't think we've actually reached July 14 yet), and a couple of the classes have been spent looking at pretty pictures by Jacques Louis David. This ended up not being entirely relevant to my topic, but lots of pamphlets were printed during the time of the French Revolution expressing different opinions as well as offering a source of information to the public. This form of social media may be more formal than the words scrawled on a tavern wall, but these pamphlets were the "tweets" of the time. There were new ones every day, and they were widely circulated. That was a bit of a digression, ah well.
The end is in sight.
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