She had seen May Day parades during the time people were still enthusiastic or still did their best to feign enthusiasm. The women all wore red, white and blue blouses, and the public, looking on from balconies and windows, could make out various five-pointed stars, hearts and letters when the marchers went into formation.

Small brass bands accompanied the individual groups, keeping everyone in step. As a group approached the reviewing stand, even the most blase faces would beam dazzling smiles, as if trying to prove they were properly joyful or, to be more precise, in proper agreement.

Nor were they merely expressing political agreement with Communism; no, theirs was an agreement with being as such. The May Day ceremony drew its inspiration from the deep well of the categorical agreement with being.

The unwritten, unsung motto of the parade was not “Long live Communism!” but “Long live life.” The power and cunning of Communist politics lay in the fact that it appropriated this slogan. For it was this idiotic tautology – “Long live life!” – which attracted people indifferent to the theses of Communism to the Communist parade.

Hmmm. No wonder the other purveyors of totalitarian kitsch got so excited.

I don’t know if that’s sarcasm, but I do like the wink smiley

A good question for Scott Sforza.

One would think that would be clear to the country’s premiere communication professionals. What on Earth were they thinking?

It wasn’t television that “warped” the banner. The banner was poorly placed for television. In fact, one idiot has already been caught lying about the placement of the banner based on that false idea.

No, it’s an AP photo you usually see with Bush under the banner. Of all the PR visuals from that day that deserve criticism, only idiocy explains the banner’s prominent rhetorical syllogism years after the fact.