I just got back from visiting the official Walt Kelly (creator of Pogo) site. It seems quite a lot of people these days would like to expropriate his famous "We has seen the enemy and he is us" line. I was surprised to find that the first time he published it was in 1954 (!). I knew it was earlier than the usual 1970 (Earth Day) reference, because I remember one of my high school teachers using it in class. I knew I had to have been a freshman then, so we are talking about 1965-6. I was only ten years off or so. I had thought this particular teacher may have read it in the newspaper recently, but he may have been a Pogo fan. At the time, I was somewhat of a cartoonist myself, for the school newspaper, usually writing things that got me in trouble.
Now it is the 21st century, and the phrase seems still apropos to many things. After finding out which book it was, I looked on the Internet to see where I could get the original, in a book entitled "Pot Luck Pogo". One book seller offered it for $29.99, so when I found a copy being offered on Ebay for $2, I figured that was a pretty good deal. I'm waiting now for the auction to be over. I would like to put a copy of it on my office door, to see how my students (and others) will react to it. It is a short distance from the Pogo line to "man is his own worst enemy", and that is how the Earth Day people seem to have interpreted it. But another possible interpretion could be "we become that which we have been fighting against all of our lives at some point". I am reminded of the slogan from the 60's, "don't trust anyone over 30". When we become 30, should we not trust ourselves? I would still like to think that those in leadership positions do not need to discard all of their moral scruples in order to remain in that position, but sometimes I wonder...certainly a good dose of introspection would not hurt anybody these days (myself included). Failing at that, I would say, t'row da bums out.