THE BAD NEWS and THE GOOD NEWS
It is noteworthy that during this third week {02/05} that the Christos' Gates is drawing huge crowds, Night Line (ABC TV) aired a chilling program on lynchings in America. The statistics are impressive for both events.
The Christos' Gates is estimated to have from 700,000 to one million people attending during the first week alone. Other researchers have recorded that from 1882-1930 there were 2805 {documented} "victims of lynch mobs."
The bad news is that in relatively recent times seemingly 'god fearing plain folks' could be swept up in a collective frenzy of temporary insanity as they played the roles of eager bystanders animatedly watching undeniable murder happening in front of their noses and, worse, experiencing it as entertainment.
The good news is that during this past two weeks equally 'god fearing plain folks' have been equally swept up not in a frenzy but in a collective sense of sensibility and civility, curious and delighted with the short timed but impactful colorful addition to Central Park courtesy of the Christo's.
Challenged to answer the question: what transforms individually good people into crazed men and women, Charles Mackay LL.D (1841) wrote his classic book called: Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds.
I know from my work as a psychotherapist that anxiety is contagious. Whip up a crowd that is vulnerable to scapegoating, fear ridden, and frustrated and you can convert decent law abiding individual citizens into a nihilistic, unrestrained lynch mob.
However the Gates exhibit strongly suggests an alternative pathway is open to each and every one once deeply stirred. This pathway leads not to violence but to joy, not to an orgy of unrestrained destruction, but to a celebration of that which is most noble and laudable expressing the best of our individual and collective nature(s).
Given the polarization in our America the excitement generated by the Gates is {hopefully} a harbinger of a more positive trend of collective tolerance for differences and uniqeness. A trend requiring nuturing and protection.
In attending the Gates exhibit, I personally experienced my own stirring of what can best be described as "the art spirit." And in watching the crowds of people obviously enjoying themselves, experiencing the Gates from their own unique perspectives, I would imagine they were permeated with the art spirit as well.
In recognition of this notable shift in consciousness raising, perhaps someone will write a book called Extraordinary Popular Realities and the Sanity of Crowds.
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