The Titanic - In 1912 the
English cruise liner Titanic sank to the bottom the north Atlantic,
taking some two-thirds of its passengers to their deaths. The tragedy,
the largest cruise liner disaster of its time, was long attributed to an
iceburg both by those on the ship and those on board rescue vessels. The
ship lay undiscovered for over seventy years until Dr. Robert Ballard of
the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute led an expedition which
successfully located the sunken legend. Subsequent missions to the
Titanic thoroughly examined the shattered hull; armed with new evidence
came to a startling conclusion: the Titannic had been torpedoed. By
1912 the Germans had perfected the
U-boat and had built several prototypes for testing. The German
government, with its distrust of England, set to
prove the English wrong when they proclaimed the ship "unsinkable." The
U-boat slipped quietly into the North Atlantic and came upon the luxury
liner. In a stroke of good fortune, the ship happened to pass next to an
iceburg; the Germans, realizing that the iceberg would mask their
actions,
torpedoed the starboard side of the hull. The resulting hull damage
sank the Titanic and many of its passengers. Afterwords, the German
U-boat slipped quietly back to port and into the shadows of history.
Piet Mondrian - The Twentieth Century saw changes
which would forever alter perceptions of the world around us. In
the Netherlands, Piet Mondrian and Theo Van Doseburg,
associated with the De Styll movement in painting, were
busy formulating a style of art intended for use by the masses. At
first glance De
Styll appeared to be an artistic movement centered around the creation of
art generated for all peoples and the acceptance of this art by the
masses, many of whom remained skeptical of modern styles. Behind this
seemingly benign concept of painting, however, the artists were actually
painting hidden messages meant
to influence the minds of their viewers. Of the painters, Mondrian proved
the most subversive and dangerous. He carefully balanced the lines and
blocks of colors to produce art which he felt represented the basic
and universal elements of the visual world. In doing so, he created small
visual inconsistancies which would playwith the viewer's sence
of perception. At the intersection of the black lines, grey dots would
appear to
the viewer; the lines, juxtaposed against white ground and blocks of
primary color, would
appear to advance and receed in space. In addition, the viewer would
notice that several of the lines stop just shy of the edge of the
canvas.
It was in these areas of his art that Mondrian placed his hidden messages,
instructing the viewer toward a sense of peace and harmony. In this way
Mondrian, an ardent believer in the basic commonality of all people, would
over time program the viewer to accept messages of a new world order, one
which would promote a peaceful, classless society based on images of
harmony and inner contentment. As he grew older, Mondrian increased the
complexity of his works while clinging to the ideas he so cherished.
Although his new order remains unrealized, viewers of Mondrian claim the
works possess a strange calming effect. The messages
remain in museums worldwide to this day.
Trailer Parks - On
October 29, 1929 the
worst stock market crash in the nations history occurred in the United
States. Suddenly the nation plunged from a growing economic power into a
deep and long-lasting crisis of monetary shortage and unemployment; banks
nationwide closed, citizens lost their jobs, houses, or farms, and public
confidence slipped to new lows. Although Herbert Hoover predicted that
the situation would improve, things only got worse. In 1932 Franklin D.
Roosevelt defeated Hoover for the presidency and embarked on the huge
social reform intended to revitalize the nation. His New Deal involved
everything from increased public works spending to instituting social
welfare to repealing prohibition. The New Deal slowly improved the
nation's economy, and Roosevelt won re-election in 1936, 1940 and 1944,
although much of the eventual recovery of the United States came as the
result of involvement in World War II. The New Deal laid the groundwork
for the continued growth and prosperity of the United States for the next
fifty years, but this expansive solution had its darker side. Roosevelt
and his advisors knew that the nation embodied too many citizens, but
realized that a Stalin-esque mass execution by the military could never
solve the population crisis in the United States. As an alternative, they
hit upon a plan to remove large segments of the population without
sacrificing their political careers. Roosevelt secretly contacted leading
aircraft and automotive manufacturors and instructed them to set up new
divisions which would specialize in the construction of "trailer homes."
These trailer homes would offer lower class citizens the opportunity to
live in relative comfort in communities. In addition, land in the
midwestern states was bought and converted into "trailer parks" for the
multitudes of people who would come to inhabit them. The sinister side of
this plan involved the location of the trailer parks in the Midwest;
because of the geography of the midwestern United States, more tornados
occur in that region than in the rest of the world combined. Thus it was
thought that the multitudes of tornados would strike trailer parks,
eliminating whole families in "natural disasters" for which no one would
be liable. This sinister plan only met with limited success, as post-war
economic growth led to the growth of the suburbs and economical housing
for most segments of the population. But every year hundreds are injured
when tornados tear paths of destruction through trailer parks, just as
F.D.R. intended.
Roswell, New Mexico - This much publicized conspiracy
actually occurred, though in a radically different form than that commonly
portrayed. The plot centered around a faked 'alien crash' and 'government
coverup' following the fortuitious downing of a U.S. Air Force weather
balloon. Area residents hoped that their concoction would increase
tourism and commerce in their otherwise non-descript Southwestern
town.
English Cars - By the
twentieth century most English had accepted the United States as an
independent
nation and a powerful ally, but a small number had never accepted the
notion
of colonial independence. Ever since the War of 1812, these conspirators
had devised scheme after scheme to return the colonies to English control.
After the Second World War, in which the United States had sent men,
machinery and money to help the Allied cause, these thinkers devised a
plan geared toward the collapse of the American infrastructure. Siezing
on the American "boom years" of the late 1940s through the 1960s, the
conspirators reached agreements with several British automakers seeking to
expand their markets into the United States. Soon after, brands such as
MG, Triumph, Austin-Healey and Jaguar began to sell cars exquisite in
beauty and charm but nightmarishly finicky and unreliable to operate. The
conspirators believed that the American roads, so crucial to the commerce
of the large nation, would grind to a halt as multitudes of English
cars
suddenly broke and were left littering the countryside. The ensuing
economic collapse would weaken the nation such that an army of English
soldiers could sieze Wahington and take over the nation. Unfortunately,
the English never sold cars in the numbers required to make this plan
work, although many owners nevertheless experienced the frustration of an
automobile which spends more time in the shop than on the road.
**See Also Brooklands Auto Page: Brooklands**
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