Whatever the post-modernists might try to tell you, art isn’t about perfectly uninhibited expression. Art is in the constraints. The limitations, boundaries, and rules of art confer most of its appeal.
■ Even classic cartoons observe limitations -- and not just in the strict sense of ink and paint on celluloid. Chuck Jones, who directed many of the best-known Looney Tunes shorts, wrote that Bugs Bunny was only successful as a character when he was constrained by certain rules.
■ Among those rules, Jones wrote: “His adversary must be worthy of him, for there is nothing heroic about beating an opponent who is in no position to beat you.” Additionally, “Bugs never engages any opponent without reason”. Once engaged in a conflict, “his wits are his basic weapon; he tries to avoid physical conflict when possible”. The first rule of all? “Bugs must always be provoked rather than being the aggressor.”
■ The cartoons may be vintage, but it’s no real stretch to say that Bugs Bunny -- specifically, the Bugs Bunny who follows those rules -- is the most American pop-cultural character of the last 100 years.
■ And it’s a crying shame that too many Americans (including many with power and influence) don’t recognize that the constraints were what made the animated hero, because the same constraints are what draw the line between heroism and villainy among us today. If you can’t even aspire to the honor code of a cartoon rabbit, then you’re probably not one of the good guys.