The Norman Rockwell Museum in Massachusetts currently has an exhibit titled “Enduring Ideals: Rockwell, Roosevelt, & the Four Freedoms.” It features Rockwell’s iconic illustrations of Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms speech, along with works by other artists.
One of the things I found interesting in the discussion of the history of Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms speech was that the initial speech barely received any initial attention. It wasn’t until the speech had been popularized and iconified by artists like Rockwell that it became famous.
In other words, it took marketing to make it come alive in the popular conscience. As Rockwell stated:
The Four Freedoms are so darned high-blown. Somehow I just couldn’t get my mind around it.
Today, we face similar challenges in popularizing complex issues in the public imagination, like income inequality and climate change. Toward this end, I thought I’d revisit Rockwell’s iconic works to see how he did it.
Freedom of speech
In FDR’s words, from the Four Freedoms speech:
In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms. The first is freedom of speech and expression—everywhere in the world.
This freedom comes straight from the First Amendment of our Constitution and is easily recognizable to most Americans. It’s probably why FDR started with speech.
According to the Rockwell Museum, one night Rockwell attended a town meeting in Vermont where he witnessed one of his neighbors being met with respect when he arose to express an unpopular view. He awoke that night realizing that the best way he could express FDR’s four freedoms was to paint them from the perspective of his own experiences.
Notice that the speaker is the focus of attention, standing head and shoulders above the crowd, several of whom are turning to listen attentively.
Freedom of religion
As FDR described it in his speech:
The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way—everywhere in the world.
Freedom of religion is also from our First Amendment. FDR likely touched on freedom of religion because he wanted to reach out to religious communities in the same way that Thomas Jefferson did. Jefferson didn't believe government should support any one religion over another, so he sought a compromise among people of different religious faiths. He knew that while adherents of different religions disagree on many things, they likely would agree that they didn't want government favoring one religion over another. In his words:
Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should "make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," thus building a wall of separation between Church & State.
Rockwell’s initial version of freedom of religion had people of different faiths sitting around in a barbershop, chatting and waiting their turn with the barber. He eventually rejected this image as too stereotypical.
In his final portrait, people of different faiths are all facing the same way, perhaps at a funeral, perhaps at some other event, and expressing themselves in different ways.
Freedom from want
In FDR’s words:
The third is freedom from want—which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peace time life for its inhabitants—everywhere in the world.
This was perhaps Rockwell’s most iconic Four Freedoms portrait. It shows a family sitting around at Thanksgiving sharing a feast.
It’s no wonder this illustration became one of the most iconic. First, it speaks to a holiday celebration that everyone would be familiar with. Notice how he surrounds the table with 11 people of different ages and genders, to symbolize the country. Everyone is also laughing and talking, demonstrating the result of being free from want.
For this freedom, Rockwell’s image was particularly needed to illustrate the concept, because it wasn’t something described in our Constitution. Rockwell brought it to life and made it real.
Freedom from fear
In Roosevelt’s words:
The fourth is freedom from fear—which, translated into world terms, means a world wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor—anywhere in the world.That is no vision of a distant millennium. It is a definite basis for a kind of world attainable in our own time and generation. That kind of world is the very antithesis of the so-called new order of tyranny which the dictators seek to create with the crash of a bomb.
This concept was perhaps Roosevelt’s most abstract, and probably why he saved it for last. Here, he wanted to articulate a vision of a future where countries weren’t committing acts of aggression against each other. He laid out a vision of a world without dictators.
His idea to illustrate this played off the idea of children falling asleep without fear. It’s absolutely brilliant, as almost everyone can relate to childhood fears of having trouble falling asleep because of monsters in the dark.
Takeaways
Rockwell’s works are relevant because all too often when we talk about politics, we argue policies or we debate ideas. Simple stories from your life that illustrate why something is important to you can be far more powerful.
If you want to convince someone of something, ask yourself: What do these policies or ideas mean to me? Why do I believe what I believe?
Then, tell that story.
David Akadjian is the author of The Little Book of Revolution: A Distributive Strategy for Democracy (ebook now available).