Post 326: Prophetic that social media moves populations, all women concert July 4th, An Exhibit of beautiful artwork by the Jerusalem Artist Circle, my fluffy bean sprout salad
We are our home, and from it are our bearings. Without home one is rootless. I am trying to imagine living alone, the norm today preferred by many, offering freedom to mingle or not.
I am offering my readers this link to a modern phenomena of being alone in crowd. Remember the book “A Lonely Crowd”? Reisman’s inner-directed person is, simply, “somewhat less concerned than the other-directed person with continuously obtaining from contemporaries (or their stand-ins: the mass media) a flow of guidance, expectation, and approbation.” See how the Internet intensifies things.
The floating plastic walk runway, laid out in a lake in Italy has drawn thousands of pedestrians. How cool!
People walk on the monumental installation entitled ‘The Floating Piers’ created by artist Christo Vladimirov Javacheff on Iseo Lake, in northern Italy, on June 18, 2016. Some 200,000 floating cubes create a 3-kilometers runway connecting the village of Sulzano to the small island of Monte Isola on the Iseo Lake for a 16-day outdoor installation opened recently. Courtesy of MARCO BERTORELLO/AFP/Getty Images.
Who are these tens of thousands of people unlike those who gathered for the Civil Rights March on Washington.
Access to the Floating Piers is free of charge, and interest in the piece has been so high that in order to control overcrowding, local authorities had to stop visitors from continuing their journey towards the lake, effectively leaving over 3,000 people stranded at the Brescia train station.
Sources claim that the costs related to evacuating the stranded tourists, cleaning up after tens of thousands of visitors, and enforcing health and safety measures have made the installation too costly to maintain, to the point that they claim one should now raise the question of whether the ambitious project should have been authorized in the first place.
It appears that the movement and energy devoted to reaching the installation is to take photos, and post instagrams.
It boggles my mind to imagine people planning and making up a group amounting to tens of thousands on a daily basis traveling for the purpose of taking photos, stranding themselves and then what? It’s frightening that social media has the potential to manipulate, create mass movements for recreation. Making what I have coined Masscreations.
Israel ostensibly monitors any “recreational” activity that could impact negatively on an area of the country, the economy, and every ripple effect imaginable. All the major energy companies, gas, electric, transportation, etc. are protected against cyber attack, collapsing under strain, always prepared to perform rescue through government oversight. Nothing voluntary about it as in Europe and America. Am I exhibiting paranoia? The plans of tens began small and then grew exponentially.
Contagion affects people’s motivation, and actions. Contagion theory is a theory of collective behavior which explains that the crowd can cause a hypnotic impact on individuals. The theory is first developed by Gustave Le Bon in his book called “the crowd: a study of popular mind in France” in 1885.
There are crowds and there are crowds. I visited the light show in the Old City on the last night of the show, and towards the end I noticed there were 6-7 across not like the 2-3’s when we started. There were several different colored routes and markers. At the exit they all merged.
I glanced ahead and saw that the police had cut off breaking away from the exiting crowd of which I was a part, and were leading them in a long path to allow only new visitors to enter the Old City.
My friend and I broke away and went against the crowd entering. We also had wanted to take a few more snapshots. My point is, the police had a plan in place.
The following story made the New York Times. It illustrates again the power of social media to move crowds. These are beautiful Basketball courts.
I would spend a morning jumping rope and afterwards have a coffee and just sitting back and point out the historic buildings across the East River. The basketball courts on Pier 2 at Brooklyn Bridge Park draw players from around the city.
But a rash of court side fights, punctuated by gunfire last year, have prompted the police, at times, to shut down the pier.CreditAlex Wroblewski for The New York Times
Brooklyn Bridge Park, the 85-acre park at the edge of Brooklyn Heights, transformed an industrial shoreline into a recreational esplanade that today draws over 125,000 people on summer weekends.
That’s a lot of people. True it’s spread over several days.
Particularly prized are the park’s tidy basketball courts that draw players from as far as the Bronx and Queens for their million-dollar views of Lower Manhattan and other amenities not often found on more humble home turfs — like actual nets on the hoops.
The situation has set some residents in the well-off neighborhood, which is mostly white, on edge.
The players, many of whom are black, say that whatever problems have occurred are relatively limited and believe that they are the victims of stereotyping.
Photo
Aaliyah Johnson, 17, travels from Flatbush to use the courts. “We just came here to play basketball,” she said. Court side fisticuffs, they say, are just a result of teenagers being teenagers — and isn’t that what happens in parks? If you are not familiar with the term “fisticuffs” Here’s the definition:
A heated argument
It can sometimes end in fisticuffs, with both participants punching wildly at each other.
The conflict between the players and the neighborhood plays out in particular at the southern end of the slim, 1.3-mile-long park, where it pours out onto Joralemon Street.
“Joralemon Street becomes like this funnel of kids who are already very agitated running down the street screaming, bouncing basketballs, taunting pedestrians, taunting cars,” said Linda DeRosa, the president of the Willowtown Association, a local civic group, referring to times when fights have caused the park to be closed by the police. “It’s just a sign that the park really needs to get control of their facility.”
The issue came to a head during a recent meeting at the local police precinct house, which was reported by Gothamist, in which residents said that the unruly crowds drawn to the courts were damaging the character of the neighborhood.
I am very much in favor of cameras posted where crowds gather. I made an inquiry to the Brooklyn conservancy that manages the parks as to whether they have cameras posted.
I’ll be looking for further examples of people’s actions influenced by contagion.
Following are invitations:
1-This is a personal invitation to our end of the year’s workshop : “Sing your body, Sing your soul” led by Ana Elya, singer and voice healer. A few numbers will be performed by the participants and we will give a taste of what we have learned during this year as well as enjoy lifting our voices in song together – Monday, July the 4th @ Moshe Castel Museum 8pm – Maale Adumim. Women only event.
Join and enjoy ! Entrance 20 nis + light refreshments
Connect to your deepest voice ! Breathe , Balance and Harmonize
2-“The Things I Love” An Exhibit of beautiful artwork by the Jerusalem Artist Circle.
Opening reception Thurs. July 14th, 19:00-21:00at Ginot Ha’ir/Beit Yehudit Matnas #12 Emek Refaim. Public is invited, free.
Exhibit runs thru August 31st, open during normal Community Center hours.
There will be additional things for sale the evening of the reception.
Come and enjoy an evening of Art, music and refreshments invite family and friends!
Please forward.
Thank you–
Leorah Parker 054-615-7935
Jerusalem Artist Circle
I’ve always loved that little side dish of pickled cucumber and or bean sprouts you get at many of the Japanese restaurants. I make a salad that uses both.
1⁄4 cup soy sauce (may use lite) or diluted miso as last ingredient to manage the salt I have red seeds that I got at the shuk and will try using them instead of soy sauce
Place the cucumbers, cabbage, radish and sprouts in a glass bowl and sprinkle with salt/substitute.. Toss well and chill for 1 hour. Rinse and drain well.I omitted the salt because I don’t like wilted cabbage and sprouts.
Put all the dressing ingredients in a jar and shake well to combine. Pour over the cucumber/sprouts/vegetable mixture and mix well. Top with sesame seeds, wheat sprouts and scallions (chopped green onion)
NOTE: I find that letting the salad sit a few hours in the fridge helps the texture and flavors mix. In fact, I prefer this salad the next day.
savyatseventy 