Sunday, April 27, 2014

Depression, Fear and Camouflage

Ad for US Camoufleurs stage performance (1918)
Above Newspaper advertisement for a dramatic stage performance by members of the US Army Camouflage Unit at Camp Greene in North Carolina. The performance took place on June 2, 1918, and was very favorably reviewed the following day in the Charlotte News in CAMOUFLEURS MADE GREAT HIT, p. 2.

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From the Albury Banner and Wodonga Express (New South Wales), October 16, 1936, p. 35—

Camouflage is the trick of making a thing look like something else. A battleship is painted to look like the waves. A building is covered with branches to make it look like a clump of trees. Other instances will occur to you. But camouflage doesn't always work. The battleship can easily be located by a tiny machine that picks up its vibrations, and tells exactly where it is and how fast it is going; or an airplane can see both ship and the shadow cast by it.  There are many people who camouflage their words and actions and motives. If they fool anybody, it is not for long. There is always something that betrays them for what they really are. The honest person never tries to camouflage. He does not pretend to be something that he is not. Don't camouflage. The trick is easily spotted, and it is always a sign that there is something wrong somewhere. Be yourself. Be the best yourself that you possibly can, and you'll never need to camouflage.

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Rodney Dangerfield (American comedian) in an interview with Frank T. Csongos in 1975, reprinted here

Comedy is a camouflage for depression.