Purpose and Context
Maxine Albro and John Langely Howard, Public Works of Art Project, Coit Tower, San Francisco
https://livingnewdeal.org/projects/coit-tower-howard-mural-san-francisco-ca/
https://livingnewdeal.org/projects/coit-tower-howard-mural-san-francisco-ca/
The New York Times front- and several page report May 1, 2022 on racist mythologist Tucker Carlson[i] (descended from Henry Miller, who gained ownership of vast tracts of land after the Mexican-American war), made me think about Karl Lueger, mayor of Vienna from 1897 until his death in 1910, whose “particularly aggressive anti-Semitism” was “central” to his election (Times of Israel).[ii] Even though he tried to move away from “hatred of a minority” in office, that’s how he built his career. Hitler viewed Lueger as a model in Mein Kampf. The simple answer - it’s the fault of those people over there – that appealed to him, now draws many into the pernicious trap of “white grievance”.
Carlson’s “data-driven” business approach taught him to step up what sells and he now has a lock on support from Lachlan Murdock. They see no problem with this route to success, like Lueger. They are dividing the house, and we will all reap the whirlwind they are stirring unless we meet this challenge with effective response. This Times coverage is of historical proportions and should be read by all environmental citizens because what’s coming could be more powerful than heated hurricanes and tornados.
In Wittgenstein’s Vienna[iii] one reads how Lueger became more center-right, as if he were just using the appeal to people’s fears to get into power. Carlson may think of himself as center-right. He began as a libertarian. Now he is leading a cultural war. He reminds us too of Nixon and others who were not devil madmen like Hitler or Putin, but in pandering to the right were great Pandoras (none of them women): people who open the box of social horrors.
If we are to turn back the Nazification of America we should stop anticipating the Night of the Living Dead, viewing Republican voters like zombie followers of leaders with dead souls. We must instead think of other analogies in our effort to free them from the captured herd. Cowboy heroes can help here, resisters of the mob, what Toto the dog does at the end of the Wizard of Oz, the crusty old town liberated by a Barbara Stanwyck vitality or a Gregory Peck integrity – there are so many stories that can inspire us to try to reach those now captured by what was described years ago as The Republic Noise Machine.[iv] A cultural war is being waged against those of us who cling to the American Dream of equality, and we must learn to use stories as do the enemies of democracy.
Carlson’s “data-driven” business approach taught him to step up what sells and he now has a lock on support from Lachlan Murdock. They see no problem with this route to success, like Lueger. They are dividing the house, and we will all reap the whirlwind they are stirring unless we meet this challenge with effective response. This Times coverage is of historical proportions and should be read by all environmental citizens because what’s coming could be more powerful than heated hurricanes and tornados.
In Wittgenstein’s Vienna[iii] one reads how Lueger became more center-right, as if he were just using the appeal to people’s fears to get into power. Carlson may think of himself as center-right. He began as a libertarian. Now he is leading a cultural war. He reminds us too of Nixon and others who were not devil madmen like Hitler or Putin, but in pandering to the right were great Pandoras (none of them women): people who open the box of social horrors.
If we are to turn back the Nazification of America we should stop anticipating the Night of the Living Dead, viewing Republican voters like zombie followers of leaders with dead souls. We must instead think of other analogies in our effort to free them from the captured herd. Cowboy heroes can help here, resisters of the mob, what Toto the dog does at the end of the Wizard of Oz, the crusty old town liberated by a Barbara Stanwyck vitality or a Gregory Peck integrity – there are so many stories that can inspire us to try to reach those now captured by what was described years ago as The Republic Noise Machine.[iv] A cultural war is being waged against those of us who cling to the American Dream of equality, and we must learn to use stories as do the enemies of democracy.