massornament

This is my latest favorite procrastination tool: Life magazine images hosted by Google Image Search: http://www.life.com/Life/

But to get to the subject of this post: the question as to whether the Cold War was a projection of collective fear or paranoia but also… and at the very same time… if it was an expression of mass desire and fantasy.  I found this set of photographs to be somewhat bewildering.  The photos depict a town in Wisconsin, U.S.A. that staged a mock Communist invasion in 1950.  Judging by the expressions on some of the faces, I think one would have to conclude that such a simulation is driven by fear mixed with desire; fear of the possibility of such an event happening but also the desire to experience it.

I often wonder what the experience of living in the U.S. in the midst of the Cold War was like for its citizens.  It must have been very strange indeed.