History Lessens

History Lessens.

The last masters

Of the murdered world

Stumble cacophonously.

Amidst Gaia moans

I tell men

They are beautiful

In dark places.

Candidly

Candice Bergen's acting style puts one in mind of her sitting on her father's knee.

genet's arse

genet's arse

with all that constipation
it don't bear contemplation.

“ Introducing Writing Styles, Techniques and Conventions” Assignment 1

Reflections on An Execution in A Child’s Eyes.

One of my first profound insights into human nature happened in the family lounge room watching television. It was the 1970’s.  I was little more than ten years old.

The trial of the Rosenbergs was recreated in memory of the 25^th anniversary of their execution. Most people today know of the case. Ethel and Julius Rosenberg were put to death for, supposedly, selling the secret of the atomic bomb to Russia.

In 1953, the year the Rosenbergs were to die, the Cold War  was escalating and a hysterical fear of  both communism and nuclear war meant that there was no chance of justice for the two. The couple were idealists who had joined the communist party to help the poor. It has come to light that Julius Rosenberg sold a simple sketch of a jet engine to Russia, at a time when they were American allies; it is highly likely that Ethel was innocent but went to the chair out of loyalty to her husband.  This is according to the research of their 2-orphaned sons.

 Most of America, and  many in the west, chanted and waved macabre plaques demanding their deaths but for some they were a cause celebre.  Artist Pablo Picasso argued that, as I mentioned and also concluded, the young New Yorker had sold a minor secret to a country that was then an ally. How could this be punishable by death?

With hindsight it is easy to condescend to the Americans sitting in front of their televisions watching “ Ozzie and Harriet”, getting their crew cuts at the corner drugstore, and eating taffy, but we are wrong to do so. The Korean War was being fought and the threat of nuclear Armageddon was ticking ever closer on the Doomsday clock.  The wealth and materialism of Eisenhower’s America floated on currents of uncertainty. Propaganda preached that you’d just need to duck and cover, build a bomb shelter and come out smiling to roast marshmallows on the smouldering embers of humanity when the fallout dissipated. It was as heretical to observe that this was propaganda as it was to argue for the lives of 2 godless commies. How truly heinous this was is demonstrated when we consider that the ignominy passed to two children who, for their safety, assumed new identities. The atmosphere of fear and hatred was omnipresent: it was created, marketed and sold but not only to fools.

For myself it was chilling to know that man could put man, or woman, to death.  I was unable to put into words the disquiet I felt when I asked my Mother for reassurance, but I slept not at all that night.

  The fumes from Ethel’s head cloud my psyche via the grainy, grey images of our, long since deceased, black and white TV.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQjCYxkPq-k

Thank You, David Adams