A couple of images collected in the Ellwood House, courtesy of a very helpful director: Brian Reis.
1. Barbed wire is dangerous, or it doesn't work. And thus the liniments for man and beast.
2. The "Little Giant" wire stretcher can fetch even a mule, declares a Sambo character in the colorful and racist ad.
3. And a very early touting of the wire as armour: you don't get into this ball field without paying for a ticket!
(click on the photos for larger versions)
3 comments:
I really appreciate how continue to wring and wring every bit of stinky juice out of the barbed wire premise...(do you think "premise" is a good word there?)
This thoughtful response from Michael Morrow (in two parts because of the length):
And so the fence saga continues, and well it should. Peering through the 6" peep hole the most generous fence designers provide, the naked eye perceives society from focused, maybe even cleared vision.
I want to consider barbed wire's attempted eradication of buffalo and the assumed devastation of Native American culture from across the land. Surveying, dividing, deeding and taking ownership of the land by fencing it was designed to bring Western culture and religion into pervading political power previously unknown to North America. While the sneaky efforts were essentially successful, as with every other despotic takeover of grass roots society, eventually, "the people" yes, the people whose blood is chambered in the cannons, whose bones are pounded into swords, whose wives and children fuel the industrial machine that follows the massacres and devastation, yeh, oh yeh, the people history seems unable to remember...like any surviving microbe, the people rise, only to fly the same ole ragged flag of justice, peace, and freedom that allows, in fact depends on, the maggots to co-exist in the same fertile soil.
The aftermath of barbed wire fencing and chopping up the "the peoples" land has been felt far and wide...Barbed wire fencing represents the industrialization of humanity,,,that includes industrialization of our food, education, religion, medicine, psychology...communication is much more efficient now, using the rifle...human life across the globe has no greater purpose than feeding the INDUSTRIAL ( you can call it military if you like.. I think use of that term is a distraction too) machine's grizzly, grinding, unstoppable, dissension lubed processing and defines society today.
Mid-1800's there were literally hundreds of thousands of buffalo roaming the land, feeding the people. My christian forefathers knew they could control the NA people by controlling the buffalo herd...and as with today, their justifying mantra was "God told me so". Obviously, they were very productive in removing the most vital survival need to the people, the buffalo. Using barbed wire fencing christianity proceeded to divide the people, their communities, and their free thinking, all in direct opposition to teachings Jesus espoused.
Looking out today across the polluted, hazy, barbed wire striped in all its flag waving glory environment, we see roaming, romping buffalo of a different breed...the very specie christianity was supposed to divide and conquer has re-inhabited the land, coming out with a vengeance to tell the glorious Uncle who promised a chicken in every pot... to go FUCK himself...there are hundreds of thousands of the people CHOOSING ... young, old, men, women, handicapped, healthy and vibrant, veterans of several barbed wire laden wars,,,mothers, housewives, husbands, and fathers, crutches or wheels for legs and mighty thankful to have them...the people are reclaiming THEIR land...hundreds of thousands are foraging across the land while hacking up a lung as they suck barbed wire manufacturing polluted air through chemical laden tobacco..... like the buffalo, they scratch for basic survival..but unlike the buffalo, many of them are living in barbed wire manufactured cardboard boxes, hopping freight trains transporting all sorts of industrial goods such as barbed wire,, some sleeping under industrial strength freeway bridges. These folks are moving freely back and forth across the world, finding survival in the dirt, just like buffalo.
Part two from Michael:
My favorite symbol of the ever growing movement of people across and into the land is provided by a holdover hippie communal group called Rainbow Family. Several unannounced times a year the family will organize a free-for-all month or two long gathering 20-30 miles off beaten paths into National Park Lands. Literally, 40-50,000 people of all ages (including those interested in naked yoga) hike deep into the forest for a party to satisfy your every need and desire...where ever your imagination goes is what YOU will find there...and I am very pleased to acknowledge that son is an active member of this group and I will be pleased to join him in the near future,,,as soon as my tight ass sphincter muscle releases its hold on my freedom... I will run to spend that time with one of the most creative and smartest people I know,,,my son...
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