No matter who you are or what you do, you’ll likely join the rest of us in breathing a sigh of relief for not being born any earlier than you were. As Vonnegut put it in Cat’s Cradle, “History! Read it and weep!” And weep is what you might do looking through this collection of vintage motivational cards from the early 1900’s. While suggestive of ideas that might propel one to action, you can almost taste the condescension and extrapolate from it the working conditions that might have acted as the side dish to our past toiling.
As you return to your labor today, be thankful that its 2012 and not 1912, 1812 or worse. And for all those reading from 2112, Despair, Inc. will give you a glimpse of how twisted things were in the early part of the 21st century.
[via imprint]
