Challenging Authority

Ever since Ancient Greece and Rome — perhaps Akkadian times, too, with the poetry of Enheduanna, the poet-daughter of Sargon the Great — authority has been blessed by challengers.

Even the name, Gadfly, originated with Socrates who corrupted the youth of Athens. Then, the playwright, Aristophanes, added that literary discipline to the compendium of satire.

Satire more recently crossed the Channel to Ireland and Britain with Jonathan Swift, and then in England (and the world) with Punch magazine. Political cartoons found a niche, and reached their height by making fun of JMW Turner, the pre-Impressionist British artist. Now, political cartoons appear on the editorial pages of many newspapers on both sides of the Pond.

GADFLY started recently in the US in the time of the Iraq War when the infamous liar called Curveball told Dick Cheney what he wanted to hear regarding weapons of mass destruction. As an add on, the (Vice) president told us that Saddam Hussein was friends with Al Qaeda. Neither was true.

A series of Letters to the Editor from Milanville followed, and soon after, The GADFLY column appeared in three different local newspapers in the Delaware Valley. Dick Cheney continued to supply raw material for GADFLY, and Donald Rumsfeld added a few select gems. More recently, GADFLY started its own blog:  gadflysmiling.blogspot.com.  

By the time The Donald assumed the Presidency, GADFLY held over 150 column with no end in sight, most of them as relevant as ever. GADFLY plans to continue to teach using the Socratic method of questioning, but has no plans to partake of hemlock