On July 11, 1925 John Raulston, judge in the small town of Dayton, Tenn. ordered his trial moved to the lawn in front of the courthouse. The reason had nothing to do with a pandemic but with the structural stability of the courthouse floor. The crowd attending the trial exceeded the shrinking population of Dayton by a factor of 2. As some boosters of the town had hoped, the trial had put Dayton on the map, but for closed mindedness, not necessarily what they had hoped for.
The Dayton trial has found a place in history and in law books alike. Its main protagonists, a populist presidential candidate as special prosecutor, a witty defense attorney defamed as a "city slicker", a young teacher as defendant and playball of a political game, a big city reporter accused of distorting truth, they all have become icons of a culture war that was eternalized in the 1960 movie "Inherit the Wind". The story line was as much about small town America versus the big cities, as about belief against science. The court case became history under the name "Monkey Trial" (officially "State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes"). At its heart was a Tennessee law that forbade teaching evolution.
Nearly a century later the story still resonates: A populist presidential candidate rallying his supporters against indoctrination in public schools, substantial numbers of politicians questioning climate science, courts stacked for a particular doctrinaire political view, a lack of decorum, and a press that is maligned as elitist are familiar ingredients of current narratives which at times look as if enlightenment itself were on trial.
The Scopes trial, from the start, has been carried on in a manner exactly fitted to the anti- evolution law and the simian imbecility under it. There hasn't been the slightest pretense to decorum. The rustic judge, a candidate for re-election, has postured the yokels like a clown in a ten-cent side show, and almost every word he has uttered has been an undisguised appeal to their prejudices and superstitions. The chief prosecuting attorney, beginning like a competent lawyer and a man of self-respect, ended like a convert at a Billy Sunday revival. (H.L. Mencken)
Uncertainty closes the mind
Just as the 1920s had been a time of great uncertainty, so are the 2020s. A century ago pretty much every issue that had been a cherished truth for eons before came into question. Einstein even made time relative. Established arts, culture and... Read FULL ARTICLE HERE
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[Klaus] Philipsen FAIA
Archplan Inc. Philipsen Architects
Baltimore MD
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