red scare, town square

Via Super Punch, we made witness to the spectacle and pageantry of the politics of fear and allure of bad actor cosplay in this vignette from 1950 about a small town called Mosinee in Wisconsin that staged a pretend Communist coup.

Given the state of America’s dictatorial and regressive aspiration, this episode is highly resonant and corresponds to a particular sort of reactionary tribalism and the paternalism of the well-intentioned and seems quite the antithesis of a similar demonstration undertaken in Canada less than a decade earlier to impress upon people the price of complacency. Albeit the latter was only a one-day affair and described by Life Magazine as the town’s most exciting since the business district burned down in 1910, and ‘according to the official Schedule of Events, the entire town would “cast aside their subversive roles and join in the raising of the American flag.” Boy Scouts would “burn all Communist banners, etc. in a huge bonfire” before the whole crowd would join in singing “God Bless America” and “start peacefully home, thankful to God that they live in AMERICA.”’

bully pulpit

Though there are many parallels to the Trump regime and the Nixon administration, possibly a more apt comparison bridged by the through-line of Roy Cohn might be Wisconsin circuit court judge and senator Joseph McCarthy for the sheer hysteria that they both incite through nihilism and demagoguery.

On this day in 2019, Trump’s legal team deflected the question in a hearing before the US Second Circuit Court of Appeals regarding the efforts to subpoena Trump’s tax returns by citing his infamous campaign quote, saying that high office shielded Trump from prosecution, were he to actually test the proposition. On 23 January 2016, during a rally in Sioux City, Iowa, Trump boasted about the loyalty of his supporters: “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose any voters.” There were echoes of a pronouncement made sixty-two years to the day before by public sentiment pollster George Gallup expressed a similar prediction about McCarthy’s die-hard base, saying that even if it were known that the senator had taken the lives of five innocent children, those who voted for him would still go along with him. Trump persecution complex does find witch-hunts everywhere. Thanks to a jury of his peers, his esteemed senatorial colleagues, that were willing to censure McCartney for his behaviour and character assassinations, the once charismatic figure is synonymous with villainy and obsession for power for its own sake and this prediction ahead of his 1954 re-election bid did not need to be borne out.

a human document

Via Austin Kleon, we were delighted to be reacquainted with the cut-up collage creations of artist, illustrator, muralist and titleist Tom Phillips, who has a new limited edition print for sale at the Royal Academy summer exhibition as part of his Humument series (an altered book with the subtitle a Treated Victorian novel, art superimposed originally throughout W H Mallock’s purposefully obscure above titled book, here page 224: Corona) and is reminiscent of concrete poetry. Much more of Phillips’ works to explore at the links above. 

 

 

seventy weeks

Relying on methodical biblical scholarship and some creative calculations, northeastern New York Baptist preacher William Miller convinced himself and his extensive flock of followers that the End of Days was upon us, and that Jesus Christ, in what Miller referred to as the Advent, would return to Earth on this day in 1844. When this prophecy failed to materialise, the following day came to be known as the Great Disappointment with many adherents becoming disillusioned with this charismatic figure. In order to prevent a further exodus, a splinter group explained that Miller’s research on the Book of Daniel was technically sound but led to the wrong conclusion, not in the Second Coming but rather the beginning of the final preparations to make the world rapture-ready.

scarlet gn

The above compound also known as Red Dye Number 4 (E number, European standard, E125—that’s a strange tale too) was banned for use in all foodstuffs or ingestibles—still used in cosmetics, by the US Food and Drug Administration when the chemical was found have carcinogenic properties including horrendously causing tumours in the bladders of dogs. Formerly cocktail maraschino cherries were exempt with the rationale that they were mostly decorative and not to be eaten.  There are now safe alternative but red-colouring is mostly avoided by association.

the mind-body problem

Pioneering experimental psychologist, physicist and philosopher who taught at the University of Leipzig and is considered the founder of the branch of study known as psychophysics—a hybrid discipline that researchers stimulation and perception—Gustav Theodor Fechner (*1801 – †1887) has been honoured on this day since 1985 by the academic community on this anniversary of Fechner awaking from a dream with an epiphany, an insight into the relationship between material and mental sensations that changed the course of scientific thinking.   In 1834, Fechner was appointed adjunct professor of physics and focused on his early fascination with colour theory—the effect named for him—and the optical illusion of colours in the spinning black and white patterns (see also) of the Benham top, but within five years had severely damaged his eyes, forcing him to change disciplines, leading to crucial and influential breakthroughs in our outlook on the way we experience the world and interpret our perceptions. Later in 1871 Fechner conducted the first study of phenomenon we’ve come to recognise as synaesthesia (previously) and studied the corpus callosum and bilateral symmetry of the brain, correctly assessing the outcome of thought-experiments not conducted until a century later.

silvicultural practise

Similar in technique and results to the woodland management practises of coppicing and pollarding, we learn—via preeminent friend of the blog Nag on the Lake, that the artistic and practical application was developed in fifteenth century Kyoto as daisugi (台杉, platform cedar) as a way to redress a timber shortage. Cutting a young tree down to its stump, if done correctly, will result in numerous shoots and can prevent deforestation.  Learn more at Spoon & Tamago at the link above.