PmWiki - UnknownUSA.GoldVsSilver

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One of the primary themes of the campaign. Gold versus Silver? Light versus dark? Night versus day? Reese was asked to make the choice between them during his hallucination in Memphis. Rob says:

"Gold versus silver, the burning political issue of the late nineteenth century in a way that's really hard to explain today."

WilliamJenningsBryan was a silver supporter. In 1896, the People's Party backed Bryan for president, a move which split the populist movement in two. Moderate populists thought Bryan was the farmer's best hope; hardcore Greenbackers thought that the silver standard was a half measure, a false remedy for America's problems. "You can't fight gold with silver." This split, followed by Bryan's defeat in 1896, destroyed the People's Party as a national political force.

TheSecretCivilWar was about gold vs. silver, in part.

TheWizardOfOz can be read as an allegory about gold and silver - the gold of the YellowBrickRoad, the silver of Dorothy's SilverShoes.

Vegas, Gold, and Silver

[From an amazing vignette by Brant.]

"See honey, Bugsy knew all about Gold and Silver--how you couldn't fight one with the other and all that. He knew about the beasts, and the trusts, and those Nephilim that Waylan is always talkin' 'bout. But he had an idea that he thought was original. He figured that, since you can't fight Gold and Silver and vice versa, you surely must be able to combine the two. He dun reckoned that such a combination would be unstoppable, and would make him a very rich man.

"So what he did, following the War, was set out to build a city of duality--a city fueled by greed and Gold, but that was ruled by the silvery Moon and the night. The LasVegas that exists today was what resulted."

"But I don't get it. LasVegas is still there, and its casinos make a fortune, so obviously combining the two sides didn't completely backfire. And yet Bugsy was still killed."

"Honey, you can't join Gold and Silver together, just like you can't use'em to fight one another. Bugsy, like everyone who toys recklessly with Gold and Silver, was killed by his creation. Oh, sure, some people say that he was killed by the Chicago Kings out of fear that their White City would be eclipsed by his LasVegas, but the truth is that his own monster turned on him. Now it runs loose in the Nevada desert, gobblin' up souls and minds. It's devoured thousands of souls over the past fifty-some-odd-years, just like it devoured yours, Michael."

A New Theory

I'm beginning to think that we brought Gold and Silver over from Europe in the form of the dual pursuits of all the colonists: making money and pursuing religious freedom. If Gold is the pursuit of money, then Silver is the pursuit of spiritual fulfillment. If we see the Goldbugs as the Captains of Industry, then the Silverites, with their manifold cults, constantly spawning and reproducing, are the American desire to Believe. In something. Anything. Just so happens that Maiden/Mother/Crone is there, and after 2,000 years of overt suppression She's been waiting a long long time to be in people's minds again...

Religious cults in America who found their way to freedom in the West: the Mormons, IAM (the original Silver Shirt iteration), JackParsons et al., the Manson family, the Process Church, the Scientologists, and now, the SectOfTheNakedGoddess. [Mike]

Oh, and the SilverScreen as national religion of the 20th Century also resonates nicely. [Mike again]

Vegas, Gold, and Silver

A New Theory

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