January 25, 2002

2:37 PM

Thisis a site for a book, and a traveling exhibit, of photgraphy of public lynchings in the Not-so-long-ago-as-you-might-wish American past. A friend of mine went to the exhibit in Pittsburgh and said it was hardest thing he's ever done, it was moving and horryfying of what people are capable of when they become an angry mob. However BAD you thoguht the world is now, it was worse just several decades ago.
posted by Dome-O-Rama (9 comments total)

It has been discussed previously here and here, but is always worth another look.

This comment, posted almost two years ago brings things right back up to the present day.
posted by mathowie at 2:54 PM on January 25, 2002

However BAD you thoguht the world is now, it was worse just several decades ago. No, it was not. What these pictures address (again) are not the sum total of the state of affairs of the world. There are now more wars, poverty, fatal disease and general hopelessness for more people than ever before. Just less mob violence in the US.
posted by Mack Twain at 3:39 PM on January 25, 2002

Hmm, Mack, Matt Welch would beg to differ with your pessimism -- and speaking as someone who lived through the 1970s, when there was a horrible drought all across sub-Saharan Africa, malaria, smallpox, and polio still ran rampant on six continents, there were military dictatorships by the score including what Welch calls the "anti-capitalist globalists" i.e. the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact (remember them? people couldn't even leave without getting shot), there was a real threat of nuclear war between the superpowers, and we didn't have wondrous technology like the internet that creates immediate international connections ... hell, I insist that you quantify your pessimism. I think it's unquestionable that 2001 is better than 1971 in almost any measure one would choose.
posted by dhartung at 4:52 PM on January 25, 2002

My worst thread ever--but the site itself is virtal and, as Matt said, always worth another look. That people would dress up and take their kids--it's so...beyond words to express.

I've always had Without Sanctuary on my show's links page. Considering the music at the core of it, I'm always mindful of the conditions under which it came to be. Which says something positive, I think, about the human spirit in the face of oppression, horror and death--that such lasting beauty could be created out of such a history.

Journal E is an incredible site beyond that exhibit, which I'd link if I weren't still an notalentasclown.org kind of guy.
posted by y2karl at 5:06 PM on January 25, 2002

[insert swearword of choice] i couldn't make it thru the slide-show. got about 9-10 in.

I think it's unquestionable that 2001 is better than 1971 in almost any measure one would choose.

absolutely.

and perhaps not because the world has been rid of evil or anything even close to that...but parts of the world are improved, and there is a huge Awareness and flow of information thanks to the internet. The world is a better place for blogs, and metafilter. I feel like a silly geek saying that.

i remember sitting in a high school class in the mid 80's, and we talked about wacky ideas like the Berlin Wall coming down, or Nelson Mandella being free, or whether or not--or When--we would have a war with the USSR. Remember Red Dawn? Wow.

the world is better. Not perfect, better.
posted by th3ph17 at 5:25 PM on January 25, 2002

dhartung:The pictures do not claim to portray the seventies; more like the 1890s to the 1940s. My point is that many things have degenerated since the fourties. But since you used the seventies, I think many things have gotten a lot worse since the seventies, worldwide. The 'balance of power' actually created a form of stability, just like that imposed by the Soviet Union on a hugely diverse population that now finds itself at each others throats. Population, world hunger, diminishing resources, aids, dictatorships, wars, the rise of religious fascisim...I'm not a pessimist, I just see that overall, things have gotten more dangerous since the era of these photos.
posted by Mack Twain at 6:14 PM on January 25, 2002

'Population, world hunger, diminishing resources, aids, dictatorships, wars, the rise of religious fascisim...I'm not a pessimist, I just see that overall, things have gotten more dangerous since the era of these photos.

Where were you during the 1970s? In a hole? Or just stoned 24-7? With the exception of AIDS, every single thing you listed was a huge problem in the 1890s, 1940s, and 1970s. And yes, they have gotten better since each of those periods. Well, I take that back... the 'rise' of religious fascism wasn't a problem in those other periods, because religious fascism has been with us for thousands of years, longer even than population, world hunger, and dictatorships (but probably not as long as war.) I could list them all out, but really... Vietnam, the proxy wars in Africa, probably hundreds of millions dead in starvation in China and Africa, dictatorship across all of Latin America and Asia, Paul Ehrlich- those are creatures of the seventies. And that's just scratching the surface of things that have changed for the better. No, we don't live in a perfect world. But it is better, and getting more so. [And don't get me started on the notion that we've got more war than the 40s or the 1890s... puh-lease.]

posted by louie at 7:01 PM on January 25, 2002

That people would dress up and take their kids--it's so...beyond words to express.

But it isn't surprising or unique. Public torture and execution as entertainment goes way back, probably forever, that of the Romans and drawing & quartering of the British the most well known for someone with a US education. These days many get kicks watching violence from afar and in movies. The latter at least is a huge improvement over the past.

I also think I think it's unquestionable that 200x is better than 197x or any previous era in almost any measure one would choose, including 194x. F the "greatest generation", largely a bunch of uneducated racists.
posted by mlinksva at 7:42 PM on January 25, 2002

F the "greatest generation", largely a bunch of uneducated racists.

Oh, man, mlinksva, you were doing great until the last line. Yes, the members of that "greatest generation" were imperfect human beings, just like us, but they turned back fascism, and fought that "long, twilight struggle" against communism to a successful conclusion. They passed the Civil Rights Act and the Clean Air Act. They eliminated smallpox and almost eliminated polio. They invented the transistor and the integrated circuit.

Yes, the "greatest generation" thing is overdone, and a little annoying. But to dismiss them like that is silly.
posted by Slithy_Tove at 11:11 PM on January 25, 2002