“Voltswagen”

Volkswagen hoaxes media with fake statement on name change

 APRIL FOOL TWO DAYS EARLY FAILS  BIG TIME

DETROIT — Volkswagen of America issued false statements this week saying it would change its brand name to “Voltswagen,” to stress its commitment to electric vehicles, only to reverse course Tuesday and admit that the supposed name change was a joke.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

Mark Gillies, a company spokesman, confirmed Tuesday that the statement had been a pre-April Fool's Day joke after having insisted Monday that the release was legitimate and the name change accurate. The company's false statement was distributed again Tuesday, saying the brand-name change reflected a shift to more battery-electric vehicles.

Volkswagen's intentionally fake news release, highly unusual for a major public company, coincides with its efforts to repair its image as it tries to recover from a 2015 scandal in which it cheated on government emissions tests and allowed diesel-powered vehicles to illegally pollute the air.

In that scandal, Volkswagen admitted that about 11 million diesel vehicles worldwide were fitted with the deceptive software. The software reduced nitrogen oxide emissions when the cars were placed on a test machine but allowed higher emissions and improved engine performance during normal driving. The scandal cost Volkswagen $35 billion (30 billion euros) in fines and civil settlements and led to the recall of millions of vehicles.

The company's fake news release, leaked on Monday and then repeated in a mass email to reporters Tuesday, resulted in articles about the name change in multiple media outlets, including The Associated Press.

The fake release could land Volkswagen in trouble with U.S. securities regulators because its stock price rose nearly 5% on Tuesday, the day the bogus statement was officially issued. Investors of late have been responding positively to news of companies increasing electric vehicle production, swelling the value of shares of Tesla as well as of some EV startups.

James Cox, who teaches corporate and securities law at Duke University, said the Securities and Exchange Commission should take action to deal with such misinformation, which can distort stock prices.

“The whole market has gone crazy,” Cox said. “We need to throw a pretty clear line in the sand, I believe, about what is permissible and what isn’t permissible.”

This week's Volkswagen incident bears some similarity to one in 2018 in which Tesla's CEO Elon Musk tweeted that he had the funding secured to take the company private — a comment that drove up the stock price, Cox noted. Later, it was revealed that the funding had not been lined up. Musk and Tesla each agreed to pay $20 million in penalties to the SEC.

A message was left Tuesday seeking a comment from the SEC.

Late Tuesday, VW issued a statement confirming that it won't be changing its brand name to "Voltswagen."

“The renaming was designed to be an announcement in the spirit of April Fool's Day,” the company said.

Tim Calkins, a clinical professor of marketing at Northwestern University, said April Fool’s jokes are common in marketing. But he said it's rare for a company to deliberately mislead reporters.

“The problem is that in the short run, you can fool people, and it seems cute and entertaining," Calkins said. "But in the long run, you really do need positive and good relations with the media. For a company that already has credibility problems, this is really a strange move.”

Calkins said that while the incident might not hurt VW with consumers, the company needs good relations with reporters to build its brand image over time.

Tom Krisher, The Associated Press

VOLKSWAGON BRANDING PROBLEMS BEGAN IN THE 30'S

Why April Fools Day in France Involves Fish Pranks

It’s a long and fishy history.

BY AMELIA PARENTEAU

MARCH 31, 2024

"Allow me to address to you / With my deepest tenderness / This beautiful fish, fresh and discreet / To which I have confided my secret," says this April Fish card in French. 

IF YOU FIND YOURSELF IN France on April 1, don’t be surprised if something seems fishy. Maybe someone gives you a chocolate or a pastry in the shape of a cod? Perhaps you find a paper haddock stuck to your back, and then everyone erupts into laughter and starts pointing and shouting “poisson d’avril”? Don’t be alarmed, you’ve simply immersed yourself in the centuries-long French tradition of April Fool’s Day, known as poisson d’avril or “April Fish.”

“The idea of April Fool’s Day, or April 1, as a special day is murky,” says Jack Santino, a folklorist and Professor Emeritus at Bowling Green State University in Ohio. “Every country has its own historical event they think gave rise to it.” But France’s tradition is the only one that involves aquatic life. Historians have many theories about the origins of this piscine tradition, but no overall consensus. The most common theories are connected to pagan celebrations of the vernal equinox, Christianity, a 16th-century calendar change, and the start of the French fishing season.

April fools may trace back to Ancient Rome, but France’s fish part is harder to pin down. 

Some historians date this tradition back to the Ancient Roman pagan festival of Hilaria, a celebration marking the vernal equinox with games and masquerades. Santino says ancient Roman and Celtic celebrations of the vernal equinox are likely forerunners. Connections to those rituals “provide a kind of cultural vocabulary that people can draw on,” according to Santino. However, he believes they probably don’t have a direct connection to the fish part.

For some, that’s where Christianity comes in. The “ichthus” fish—an ancient Hellenic Christian acronym for “Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior”—is nowadays widely recognized as a symbol of Christianity, but was originally used as a secret marker of Christian affiliation. Moreover, the Lenten forty-day period between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday prohibits the consumption of meat, so fish is often served as a substitute protein during this period.

The depiction of Lent from 1893 shows how long fish has been a major part of the Christian tradition. 

As the end of Lent often occurs on or near April 1, celebrations including fish imagery would be apt to mark the end of the fasting season. Some even go so far as to surmise that poisson d’avril is a corruption of the word “passion,” as in “passion of the Christ,” into “poisson,” the French word for fish. Despite these cultural associations, Santino points out there is no actual evidence for this link to Christianity.

Then there’s the popular calendar change theory that has been widely discounted by experts today, but still comes up. In 1564, King Charles IX of France issued the Edict of Roussillon, which moved the start of the calendar year from somewhere in the period of March 25 and April 1 (different provinces kept their own calendars) to January 1.


Pope Gregory XIII standardized January 1 as the beginning of the calendar year throughout the entire Christian empire with the adoption of the Gregorian calendar in 1582. One might surmise that those who still observed the start of the new year on April 1 rather than January 1 were the “April Fools” in question and therefore subject to pranks. However, references to poisson d’avril predate the 1564 edict, occurring in print as early as 1466, which debunks this explanation.

Now paper, people used to hook real dead fish onto the backs of fishermen.

 JACK GAROFALO/GETTY IMAGES

Another plausible theory involves actual fishing. As the days get longer in the northern hemisphere, the return of spring also marks the beginning of the fishing season in France, on or near the first day of April. Some posit that the prank of offering a fish was to tease fishermen who, at this time, either had no fish or an incredible abundance. They would either have to wait around for spawning fish to be of legal size before catching them or, once it was finally time, they would be overwhelmed by catching so many fish rushing upstream. According to this theory, real herrings were the original sea critter of choice for the prank, and the trick was to hook a dead herring onto a fisherman’s back and see how long it took him to notice, as the fish began to progressively stink over the course of the day.

The poisson d’avril tradition took another turn in the early 20th century, when friends and lovers would exchange decorative postcards featuring ornate images of fish. The majority of these cards were inscribed with funny rhyming messages that were often flirtatious and suggestive, but cloaked in humor. While most cards depict young women, flowers, and fish, the ocean and other marine animals are occasionally featured, as well as references to advances in technology, such as airplanes and automobiles. Pierre Ickowicz, chief curator of the Château de Dieppe Museum in Normandy, which houses an impressive collection of these cards, says the card exchange tradition seems to have died out shortly after World War I. The museum’s 1,716 postcards are mainly from the 1920s-1930s

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Poisson d’avril postcards from the 1920s and ’30s were full of flirtation and fish. WELLCOME COLLECTION/PUBLIC DOMAIN; FOTOTECA GILARDI/GETTY IMAGES

These days in France, the most common observers of poisson d’avril are schoolchildren, who delight in taping paper fish to the backs of their siblings, classmates, and teachers. Although the execution has varied over time, from dead herring accessories to postcards to paper fish, the prankster nature has been consistent.

“This idea of playing pranks on people is something that would be obnoxious if it weren’t socially condoned on certain days,” says Santino. He notes that times of transition are often connected to rites of passage where societal rules can be broken. “If poisson d’avril has to do with a recognition of springtime, I would link it to the idea of a celebratory transition into a new period of time, and part of that celebration means we can do things that are not usually allowed.”

Today, people celebrate poisson d’avril in both neighboring Italy and in Quebec, Canada, a former colony of France. The exact origins remain murky, but the fish endures. Whether or not you participate in any kind of trickster behavior on the first of April, there’s surely some relief today that an actual dead, stinky fish is no longer a regular part of April Fool’s day—or at least hopefully that bit of history doesn’t plant any devilish ideas.

Children are the main culprits today, but anyone can end up with a paper fish on their back on April 1. KEYSTONE-FRANCE/GETTY IMAGES; LAURENT SOLA/GETTY IMAGES

George Takei claims he'll be the final torchbearer to light the Olympic Flame in Tokyo next year in April Fool's Day Joke: 'A bit of levity in an otherwise dark time'

By ADAM S. LEVY FOR DAILYMAIL.COM 2 April 2020

George Takei hasn't lost his sense of humor in these trying times.

The 82-year-old actor played an April Fool's Day Joke Wednesday, posting on social media that he would be the the final torchbearer to light the Olympic Flame in Tokyo next year.

'Friends! I’ve been sitting on some big news for quite some time now,' Takei, who played the role of Sulu on Star Trek, wrote. 'Unfortunately, given the current global situation, I haven’t been given the clear to announce it until now.'



The latest: George Takei, 82, played an April Fool's Day Joke Wednesday, posting on social media that he would be the the final torchbearer to light the Olympic Flame in Tokyo next year

Takei, a hit with audiences on The Howard Stern Show for years, said, 'I am honored beyond belief to have been selected to be the final torchbearer who will light the Olympic Flame in Tokyo in 2021!'

He continued: 'This will be such a unique moment, before the eyes of a billion people, lighting the torch as a symbol of hope for the future in 2021 in Tokyo.

'As a life-long runner, I’m especially grateful to have been chosen, and hope to do everyone in the US of A proud!'

The socially-conscious star later clarified that he was not serious with the initial post.

+4



Set-up: The actor first said he was going to take the ceremonial feat at next year's games


Admission: Takei later said it was a joke, as he sought to provide levity in tough times
George Takei of Star Trek poses for photos at premiere in 2015



Oh my! Takei was a hit with audiences as an on-air personality on The Howard Stern Show. He was snapped last year in NYC

'Yes, friends, I'm afraid this was an April Fools prank, a bit of levity in an otherwise dark time,' he wrote. 'And while I’ll not be lighting that fire myself, my eyes will look upon it as a symbol of our triumph over this invisible foe and a reuniting of the global community.'

The Tokyo Olympics were postponed March 24 amid coronavirus precautions and the International Olympics Committee later said that the new date for the games will be July 21, 2021.

The international pandemic has spread to a number of notable names in the show business world George has worked in for decades. They include Tom Hanks, Rita Wilson and Idris Elba, who have all tested positive for the virus, in addition to dozens of stars in the worlds of music, sports and politics.

As of Wednesday, the death total for COVID-19 - declared a public health emergency by World Health Organization - had soared to 4,774 people in the U.S., The COVID Tracking Project reported, with 212,695 total positive diagnoses.

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CP (TSX:CP) Stock Wins Kansas City Bid! Here’s What Investors Should Know
Amy Legate-Wolfe 

It’s official. Over the weekend, Kansas City Southern (NYSE:KSU) accepted Canadian Pacific Railway (TSX:CP)(NYSE:CP) $31 billion offer. The cash-and-stock acquisition beat out top rival Canadian National Railway (TSX:CNR)(NYSE:CNI). Shares of CP stock have fallen 4% since last week, and CNR stock is down 6% in the last week as of writing. 

But is it all over?

© Provided by The Motley Fool Freight Train

What happened?

The United States’s Surface Transportation Board (STB) became the tie breaker in this battle for the ultimate North American railway. The STB stuck to its guns, declaring CP stock the clear choice. CNR stock now has until Friday to submit a better offer or lose the deal entirely. However, given that its offer before was already much higher than CP stock’s, it looks like the STB won’t be changing its mind, so neither will KCS.

So what?

This deal is huge. The winner of the KCS deal would create the first direct railway line that would link Canada to the United States and down to Mexico. Future investors are likely to see a massive increase in shares and revenue from the deal, whichever side it lands on.

However, it’s clear why some investors are simply unhappy with the deal. It’s more than just a touch expensive. Hedge fund TCI management pressured CNR stock to abandon the deal. It would simply put too much stress on the company. In fact, the leader of the fund, Chris Hohn, launched a bid to oust CNR chairman Robert Pace, CEO John-Jacques Ruest, and other directors, stating the deal was set up to fail from the very beginning.

Meanwhile, it stands to gain a lot of cash from the break up. CNR stock would receive US$700 million as a break-up fee and then another US$700 million that it paid early to convince KCS to pass on the CP stock deal. So, a total of US$1.4 billion could be coming the company’s way.

CP stock, meanwhile, became the winner (for now) thanks to no rail overlap. CNR stock has parallel lines that operate over a central portion of the United States. So, CP stock would make far more sense in that vein.

Now what?

CP stock will have to pay out this heavy bill. And while it’s less overall than the CNR stock deal, the company does get a $300 per share in cash and stock. That’s higher than the $275 per share cash and stock originally declared by the railway companies in March. So, shares have started dropping, as investors know that in the near future, CP stock is likely to have to start putting revenue in other areas besides its dividend.

So, these rail stocks will likely continue to be part of headlines for at least this week. We’ll either get another bid from CNR stock this coming Friday, or perhaps management will call it quits. We have yet to hear from the company on either side as of writing.

But long-term investors should note: true, the deal is expensive in either case. However, this new line goes through heavy agriculture and oil services in the United States. The revenue coming from this deal will be massive. So, pay attention. There’s a reason both companies have been fighting so hard.

The post CP (TSX:CP) Stock Wins Kansas City Bid! Here’s What Investors Should Know appeared first on The Motley Fool Canada.

More reading
CN Railway (TSX:CNR): Why Investors Hate the KSU Deal
CN Rail Stock Could Surge Further on Activist Involvement
The 3 Best Canadian Stocks to Buy in September 2021
CNR (TSX:CNR) Stock or CP (TSX:CP) Stock: Which Should You Buy?
Should You Follow Billionaires Into Railroad Stocks?

Fool contributor Amy Legate-Wolfe owns shares of Canadian Pacific Railway Limited. The Motley Fool recommends Canadian National Railway.

The unfolding of the Kansas City Southern takeover saga

(Reuters) - Kansas City Southern said it planned to accept Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd's $27.2 billion cash-and-stock acquisition offer as superior to its $29.6 billion deal to sell itself to Canadian National Railway Ltd.

© Reuters/Edgard Garrido FILE PHOTO:

 A freight train of KCS Railway Company is pictured in Toluca

This comes after the U.S. Surface Transportation Board (STB) rejected a temporary "voting trust" structure last month that would have allowed Kansas City Southern shareholders to receive the $325-per-share cash-and-stock consideration under the deal with Canadian National without having to wait for full regulatory approval.

Below are the events that unfolded over several months as Canadian National and Canadian Pacific locked horns to take control of Kansas City Southern to create the first railway spanning the United States, Mexico and Canada, as they stand to benefit from a pick-up in trade.

MARCH 21: CANADIAN PACIFIC AGREES TO ACQUIRE KANSAS CITY SOUTHERN

Canadian Pacific agreed to acquire Kansas City Southern in a $25 billion cash-and-stock deal, which would be the largest ever combination of North American railways by transaction value.

MARCH 22: FARM GROUPS SHOW SUPPORT FOR CP-KCS DEAL

Farm groups said Canadian Pacific's deal to buy Kansas City Southern would create a rail network from Canada to Mexico that could smooth the flow of their goods to market.

APRIL 20: CANADIAN NATIONAL TRUMPS CP'S OFFER

Canadian National offered to buy Kansas City for about $33.7 billion, trumping Canadian Pacific's buyout offer for the railroad operator. Canadian National said it was willing to match the terms of Canadian Pacific's offer for Kansas City Southern.

APRIL 21: CN KICKS OFF REGULATORY APPROVAL PROCESS FOR KCS DEAL

Canadian National informed the Surface Transportation Board (STB), which oversees freight rail service and rates in the United States, that it planned to file an application, seeking permission to combine with Kansas City Southern.

APRIL 21: CANADIAN PACIFIC RULES OUT RAISING BID FOR KCS

Canadian Pacific's Chief Executive Keith Creel said the company would not raise its bid for Kansas City Southern and that bigger rival Canadian National's offer is "not a real deal". Creel said the company was not ready to put its "balance sheet at risk."

APRIL 22: CN SHOWS CONFIDENCE IN DEAL GETTING APPROVAL

Canadian National informed Kansas City Southern's board about its confidence in winning regulatory approvals for its offer for the U.S. railroad.

APRIL 23: LAWMAKER WARNS AGAINST RAILROAD CONSOLIDATION

Senior U.S. lawmaker said the potential acquisition of the Kansas City Southern should set off "alarm bells" about industry consolidation, warning Wall Street would make money from railroad consolidation, but the U.S. economy and workforce will suffer.

APRIL 24: U.S. REGULATOR GIVES CP EARLY WIN IN TAKEOVER WAR

The STB granted a waiver to Canadian Pacific's bid for Kansas City Southern, which means the deal would not be subjected to the tougher railroad merger rules the regulator put in place in 2001. At the same time, Kansas City Southern said its board had determined that a competing offer from Canadian National could be expected to lead to a "superior proposal."

APRIL 26: RAIL CUSTOMERS PICK SIDES IN THE TAKEOVER WAR

North America's freight rail customers, from grain shippers to logistics companies, chose sides as the takeover war continued. Canadian National filed 409 letters of support with the STB, almost at par with Canadian Pacific's stated level of support. Some companies like Coca-Cola Co and Conagra were publicly supporting both rail bids.

MAY 1: CP OBJECTS TO CANADIAN NATIONAL's BID

Canadian Pacific filed a formal objection stating Canadian National's rival bid for Kansas City does not qualify to be exempted from tougher merger rules as the CN-KCS deal would greatly expand the size of the fifth largest U.S. Class 1 railroad.

MAY 6: STB APPROVES CP'S VOTING TRUST FOR KCS DEAL

The STB approved the voting trust for Canadian Pacific's proposed acquisition of Kansas City. Canadian Pacific had earlier agreed to bear most of the risk of the merger deal not going through. Canadian Pacific was going to buy Kansas City shares and place them in an independent voting trust, insulating the acquisition target from its control until the STB cleared the deal.

MAY 13: KCS DECLARES CN BID SUPERIOR TO CP DEAL

Kansas City Southern accepted Canadian National's bid, leaving Canadian Pacific with five business days to make a new offer. If Canadian Pacific were to table a new offer, a bidding war could ensue.

MAY 14: DOJ SAYS CANADIAN NATIONAL BID A GREATER RISK TO COMPETITION

The U.S. Department of Justice said Canadian National's bid for Kansas City Southern appears to pose greater risks to competition than an agreement with Canadian Pacific.

MAY 18: SHAREHOLDER URGES CANADIAN NATIONAL TO AMEND KANSAS CITY SOUTHERN DEAL

Billionaire hedge fund manager Chris Hohn urged Canadian National Railway to abandon its bid for Kansas City Southern unless the Canadian railroad operator changed its agreement to drop a key feature that could invite more regulatory scrutiny.

MAY 20: CANADIAN PACIFIC ASKS KANSAS CITY SOUTHERN TO REJECT RIVAL OFFER

Canadian Pacific asked the U.S. railroad operator to reject rival Canadian National Railway's takeover offer, saying there was no longer any basis to terminate the CP-KCS agreement.

MAY 21: KANSAS CITY SOUTHERN STICKS TO CANADIAN NATIONAL OFFER

Kansas City Southern reiterated that Canadian National Railway's offer was "superior".

MAY 26: CANADIAN NATIONAL TO DIVEST KANSAS CITY SOUTHERN'S 70-MILE RAIL OVERLAP

Canadian National Railway agreed to divest Kansas City Southern's 70-mile rail line between New Orleans and Baton Rouge to eliminate the only overlap between the two railroad operators.

AUG. 10: CANADIAN PACIFIC CHALLENGES CANADIAN NATIONAL WITH $27 BLN KANSAS CITY SOUTHERN BID

Canadian Pacific presented a new $27 billion offer for U.S. peer Kansas City Southern.

AUG. 12: KANSAS CITY DOES NOT RECOMMEND CANADIAN PACIFIC'S NEW PROPOSAL, STICKS WITH CN

Kansas City Southern's board determined that the unsolicited proposal received from Canadian Pacific Railway does not constitute a "superior proposal" to its agreement with Canadian National.

AUG. 12: KANSAS CITY SOUTHERN TO DELAY CANADIAN NATIONAL DEAL VOTE

Kansas City Southern said it would delay a shareholder vote on its deal to sell itself to Canadian National if the STB has not delivered its decision by Aug. 17.

AUG. 31: STB REJECTS CANADIAN NATIONAL'S VOTING TRUST STRUCTURE

STB rejected Canadian National's voting trust structure that would have allowed the railroad to proceed with its $29 billion proposed acquisition of Kansas City Southern.

SEPT. 1: KANSAS CITY SOUTHERN PUTS OFF SHAREHOLDER MEET

Kansas City Southern to adjourn a shareholders meeting that was set to vote on its deal with Canadian National Railway. The railroad operator did not specify when the rescheduled meeting would be held. Additionally, the company said it was working with Canadian National to evaluate the options available and would re-evaluate Canadian Pacific's offer.

SEPT. 1: CP CHIEF UNLIKELY TO OFFER KANSAS CITY $300/SHARE AFTER SEPT. 12 DEADLINE

Canadian Pacific Railway CEO said the company would not be as willing to offer Kansas City $300 per share should the U.S. railroad operator's board fail to decide on the offer by its Sept. 12 deadline.

SEPT. 4: KANSAS CITY SOUTHERN TO BEGIN TALKS WITH CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY

Kansas City Southern said it will initiate talks with Canadian Pacific as CP's unsolicited proposal to acquire it could reasonably be expected to lead to a better proposal than one made by Canadian National Railway.

SEPT. 7: CANADIAN NATIONAL SHAREHOLDER TO NOMINATE FIVE DIRECTORS TO COMPANY'S BOARD

Billionaire Chris Hohn's TCI Fund Management said it intends to nominate directors to replace about half of Canadian National's board, after its costly attempts to buy Kansas City Southern were dealt a blow by the U.S. regulator.

SEPT. 12: KANSAS CITY SOUTHERN PLANS TO ACCEPT CANADIAN PACIFIC'S BID

Kansas City Southern said it planned to accept Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd's $27.2 billion cash-and-stock acquisition offer as superior to its $29.6 billion deal to sell itself to Canadian National Railway.

(Reporting by Shreyasee Raj in Bengaluru; Editing by Amy Caren Daniel and Maju Samuel)

Palm Sunday April Fools Day

How appropriate that the Divine Fool is celebrated today both because it is April Fools Day and Palm Sunday.

Radical Theologin Harvey Cox wrote a whole book on the divine fool.

The Feast of Fools: A Theological Essay on Festivity and Fantasy (1969),

One of the Protestants who has addressed festivals is Harvey Cox who argued that human beings are “essentially festive and ritual creatures” (1969, 8; cf. Browning 1980). As homo festivus and homo fantasia, human beings express festivity and fantasy through festival as a form of “theatre of the body.” Cox argues that with the march of secularization and the continued rejection of festivity “Christianity has often adjusted too quickly to the categories of modernity” (Ibid. 15), and with this, important facets of what it means to be human are neglected. As a result, Cox believes that there is a real need for Christianity in the West to develop a theology of festivity

An article from that book was published back in the early Seventies in Playboy, I read it for the articles back then, which included an illustration one rarely sees; Jesus Laughing.

And, what else, the symbol of Christ that best symbolizes this theology is "Christ the Harlequin" (as in The Parable, New York World's Fair 1966), who personifies festivity and fantasy in an age that has almost lost both.

Perhaps because as a divine fool he was high.

The Feast of Fools, known also as the festum fatuorum, festum stultorum, festum hypodiaconorum, or fête des fous , are the varying names given to popular medievalfestivals regularly celebrated by the clergy and laity from the fifth century until the sixteenth century in several countries of Europe, principally France, but also Spain, Germany, England, and Scotland. A similar celebration was the Feast of Asses.

The central idea seems always to have been a brief social revolution, in which power, dignity and impunity is briefly conferred on those in a subordinate position. In the view of some, this makes the medieval festival a successor to the Roman Saturnalia.

In the medieval version the young people, who played the chief parts, chose from among their own number a mock pope, archbishop, bishop, or abbot to reign as Lord of Misrule. Participants would then "consecrate" him with many ridiculous ceremonies in the chief church of the place, giving names such as Archbishop of Dolts, Abbot of Unreason, Boy Bishop, or Pope of Fools. The protagonist could be a boy bishop or subdeacon, while at the Abbey of St Gall in the tenth century, a student each December 13 enacted the part of the abbot. In any case the parody tipped dangerously towards the profane. The ceremonies often mocked the performance of the highest offices of the church, while other persons, dressed in different kinds of masks and disguises, engaged in songs and dances and practiced all manner of revelry within the church building.

I highly recommend Harvey Cox's work which in many ways compliments Bakhtin's work on the subversive nature of the Carnival and the role playing of the Fool.

"The carnival was not only liberating because for that short period the church and state had little or no control over the lives of the revellers—although Terry Eagleton points out this would probably be 'licensed' transgression at best—but its true liberating potential can be seen in the fact that set rules and beliefs were not immune to ridicule or reconception at carnival time; it 'cleared the ground' for new ideas to enter into public discourse. Bakhtin goes so far as to suggest that the European Renaissance itself was made possible by the spirit of free thinking and impiety that the carnivals engendered."

The Carnivale and Feast of Fools became recuperated in post Renaissance society as comedie della art, and play festivals like the Fringe, which exists world wide and is a popular summer festival here in Edmonton, reflect the same anarchic festivus that one would see at carnival or the earlier Fool's Feasts.

And we see the modern Carnival not only during Mardi Gras but with Feast of Fools that is the Burning Man festival. As pointed out in this article by John Morehead, whose blog is well worth perusing for it's writings on alternative religious movements..

"Burn, Baby, Burn, Christendom Inferno: Burning Man and the Festive Immolation of Christendom Culture and Modernity"

Second and related to the context of counter-modernity and counter-Christendom, Burning Man expresses itself within a cultural context that exhibits a decidedly post-modern and post-Christendom approach to spirituality. Christianity continues to play a significant role in American culture, and may have been the dominant religion in America and the Western world in the past, but in recent decades there has been a “declining influence of religion – particularly Christianity” (Heelas & Woodhead 2005, 1). This has come about through a secularization of the West which in turn has led to a spiritual re-enchantment[1] process. This re-enchantment involves the preference for spirituality rather than religion, and is characterized by an emphasis upon an individualized, subjective, and eclectic spiritual quest. In this environment of the post-modern spirituality seeker, Christianity is perceived negatively as a dogmatic institution rather than a vibrant spirituality whose adherents have often failed to live up to the moralizing they present to the culture. In reaction, many Burning Man participants have either rejected Christianity outright, or consider it of no consequence as a viable option in creating a spirituality suited for the challenges of the twenty-first century

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[1] Christopher Partridge explores the ramifications of the re-enchantment thesis in The Re-Enchantment of the West, vol. 1 (London & New York: T & T Clark International, 2004).

Since the play is the thing, we can see that since the earliest days of Christendom the Easter pageant played a significant role in society, as we know by way of the York Guilds which in a gift economy share their surpluses by holding feasts and a two week series of plays, it comes full circle, with the sacrificed god being the fool king.

If the power of the King/Church/State lay in divine right, the power of the people lay in the fool king whom they crowned. It is why in the movie Andre Rublev, about the icon painter, the opening scene has a village fool crucified for making fun of the priests. It too was produced in 1969 when Cox published his book.

Only by learning to laugh at the hopelessness around us can we touch the hem of hope. Christ the clown signifies our playful appreciation of the past and our comic refusal to accept the spectre of inevitability in the future. He is the incarnation of festivity and fantasy. (Harvey Cox 1969, 142)

Jesus as Fool, is a subversion on the classic church iconography of the slain and resurrected lord. For as Harliquen, fool, clown, he is life giver, alive, part of the meme of a living humanity. Not an icon but a living force. For the truth of his sacrifice is that life goes on.

Thus the religious heresies originating in Gnosticism that arose during the transition from the Catholic and Orthodox Empires to Protest-ism were about this spirit.

What if it is possible to awaken to a profound state of oneness and love, which the Gnostic Christians symbolized by the enigmatic figure of the laughing Jesus?

What the sacrifice originally meant was ironically the end of sacrifice. Which is why the religion of Christianity began with Agape feasts hidden away in caves and grotos, where all could be equal. The slave religion was about the end of sacrifice, the end of all sacrifice, not only of animals, but of people and of freedom.

Godspell: A Musical Based on the Gospel According to St Matthew (1973)

The portrayal of Jesus as a clown may have been offensive to some, however this reviewer found it to be refreshing, the clown communicates joy while communicating the seriousness of the gospel message. He reminds us that the gospel is a message of great joy and humility, love and peace, of triumph and victory. However in saying that there are some aspects that don't fit with our understanding, for instance the betrayal scene, Jesus kisses Judas. Then it does finish with a question hanging over it, that being, why no resurrection scene? Or maybe there was, perhaps the grand finale represents the risen Jesus, carried lifted high into the crowded streets, it gives a sense of inclusiveness, that somehow Jesus lives on in each one of us.

Jesus the fool returns again and again as a radical revolutionary icon for popular spirituality and its heresies, in opposition to the institutions of Christianity.

THE ENIGMA OF SANCTITY
	1950

Still, theologian Harvey Cox saw the Sixties' counterculture as a reclamation of facets of humanity eclipsed by the rise of technological society — essentially, Rossellini's jester side of man. In his book the Feast of Fools: A Theological Essay on Festivity & Fantasy, Cox idenfied certain aspects of the youth revolt - the recovery of celebration and imagination — not just with a hunger for for wholeness, but vital to both psychological health and, significantly, to being able to have compassion for the oppressed of the world. A capacity for being able to imaginatively "put themselves in other shoes" was prerequisite for the developed nations to be able to have understanding and compassion for those oppressed and different than themselves.

Here we see why Rossellini takes this "jester side" so seriously and so centrally: his offering of St. Francis as a model for conflict-weary Europe isn't a simple-minded Utopian vision, a rejection of private property and reduction to begging (that begs the question "begging from whom?"), but a recovery of that sense of play and imaginative identification with others that makes people more valuable than efficiency, and the "abnormality" of the Other less prone to threaten and result in conflict. The mere existence of the jester is a check on the hubris of power in both ruler and system. In his book, Cox cites an essay by Leszek Kolakowski titled, "The Priest and the Jester":

The philosophy of the jester is a philosophy which in every epoch denounces as doubtful what appears as unshakeable; it points out the contradictions in what seems evident and incontestable; it ridicules common sense into the absurd — in other words, it undertakes the daily toil of the jester's profession along with the inevitable risk of appearing ludicrous.

The jester is the quintessence of the carnival spirit, and just as the jester's cap is pants worn on the head, carnival turns upside-down the values by which the world is typically run. Carnival mocks the pretensions of permanence and power, defies the illusions of the masses. No wonder the faith of Francis has been described as a "carnivalized" Christianity: his topsy-turvy insistence that Perfect Joy is found in suffering, his irrational love for everything and everybody, his scandalous rejection of all the world holds dear — power, property, status, etc. Technically, of course, this is Christianity, for which the adjective "carnivalized" is required only when it forgets its own scandalous identity. Yet the upsidedowness of a faith whose God is born in a stable, the meek inherit the earth, and whose secrets are given to children and fools is all too easily domesticated, and even the court of Christ himself would seem to require its own jester.

was more than a juggler. He was also a poet, singer, all-around entertainer. The Indeed, Francis referred to himself as "the jester of God," and the Italian title of Rossellini's film is Francesco, giullare di Dio — "Francis, God's Jester". The Italian term refers to a French one, jongleur — whence comes "juggler" — but the jongleurjongleur was in fact more earthy than the troubadour: the Latin joculator means "joker", and Francis's joculatores Domini ("ministrels of God") were renowed for putting on a good show when they pulled into a town to preach. Francis's name and terms point to France, home to a Medieval love cult which, though eventually declared heretical and wiped out, left a deep and permanent mark on European culture. So much of what we know as "love in the Western world" finds its source in this flamboyantly romantic vision, including the veneration of an ideal lady — whether Dante and his Beatrice, or St. Francis and his "Lady Poverty."

Today there is the reinvention of the feast of fools, not only in the neo-pagan movement, or the Burning Man festival but in the far left as well. Paul Goodman and other Marxist Freudians talked about humans being playful, that the alienation of work under capitalism was that it meant that it was labour, as in slavery, drudgery rather than fun, playfulness. A Little Eros For Valentine's Day

Since Cox wrote his book in the sixties, the search for this human playful utopia continues.

I was involved with one utopia called Minnesota Experimental City. It was in an era when in the United States there was a lot of utopian thinking. Harvey Cox’s book, The Secular City, was an all time best seller that told us that as soon as we get rid of symbol and myth, get enough guitar players and good architects and civil rights workers, the Kingdom will have come.4 Three years later he was back with a better book called The Feast of Fools.5 These were written just before New York burned and Detroit burned and Watts burned, just before the U.S. committed troops to Vietnam, just before everything went bad. But we were building Minnesota Experimental City. Fifty-eight corporations put up four million dollars for our study. Buckminster Fuller – Mr. Twenty-First Century – was on the panel; Harrison Brown (Lyndon Baines Johnson’s doctor, head of the Mayo Clinic); and then they salted it with a few humanists who would ask the human questions.

We were to build a city – utopia – of two hundred and fifty thousand people. It had to be at least seventy-five miles from any other urban centre. It would be built around a branch of the University of Minnesota; 3M and all the other big firms would have a base there. We thought through everything. It’s cold up there, how are you going to play tennis all year, and how are you going to keep people from arthritis cramps? Well, Buckinster Fuller said, "nothing to it, we build a one mile square plastic dome." How do we get on with pollution? Well, we owe you a ride on an elevator in a building, so we owe you horizontal transportation in our Minnesota Experimental City. You get to the edge, and we’ll take care of you from there.

Situationism was a game of revolution and revolutionaries at play in the Sixties. So it makes sense that the recuperation of their radical politics should, like the surrealists before them, end on the stage. For once the world of 1968 was their stage today they are the play.

The meta-play is an example of Reflectionism through performance. Professor Steve Mann of the University of Toronto, who invented EyeTap to literally mediate monocultural reality, proposes: ﾅReflectionism as a new philosophical framework for questioning social values. The Reflectionist philosophy borrows from the Situationist movement in art and, in particular, an aspect of the Situationist movement called d￩tournement, in which artists often appropriate tools of the "oppressor" and then resituate these tools in a disturbing and disorienting fashion. Reflectionism attempts to take this tradition one step further, not only by appropriating the tools of the oppressor, but by turning those same tools against the oppressor as well. I coined the term "Reflectionism" because of the "mirrorlike" symmetry that is its end goal and because the goal is also to induce deep thought ("reflection") through the construction of this mirror. Reflectionism allows society to confront itself or to see its own absurdity. The participants of the meta-play who do not wish to see themselves in the mirror (thus confronting themselves) quickly turn away, but are left with the lingering image of grotesque ugliness, which will haunt them until a profound internal resolution is reached. Drawing upon traditional folly, but appearing in a disenchanted post-modern society, the concept of The Fool is resurrected, challenging and satirizing oppressors in order to cause reflection on their positions, attitudes, and worldviews. Harvey Cox describes the Foolﾒs perennial message in his 1969 The Feast of Fools: A Theological Essay on Festivity and Fantasy: It is the eternal message of The Fool, who takes the stage whenever greed, arrogance, authority, pride and sycophancy lay claim to the public headspace. These are the acts of real fools, without which The Fool would be useless and mute. The Fool is a looking-glass. She is male and female, he is human and animal, they are one moment immersed in the workaday routine and the next overturning the norms of daily life. When we play The Fool, we are The Other, strangers who are in this world but not entirely of it. The ancient term Narrenfreiheit means "freedom of the fool." That freedom reminds us that in a moment of ecstasy we can sweep away the illusion of so much of what we endure. The Fool breaks the trail; the revolutionaries follow. Those who participate, reflect, and achieve the ﾓmoment of ecstasy,ﾔ will soon realise that playing the Fool is not only one of the most satisfying and liberating experiences they will ever encounter, but is also an urgent direct action to reclaim the public headspace. To counter the oppressive and ubiquitous corporate monoculture that is so prevalent in late capitalist society, culture jamming through performance may well be the only solution to cause reflection, hence shattering a dystopic corporate reality. The idea will, I sincerely hope, spread like a virus until such a time whereby all human beings are free to express and play without fear of reprisal, are free from oppression and exploitation of all sorts, and are truly equal to one another.

See:

Jesus

Gnostic

Paganism

April Fools

Judas the Obscure

For a Ruthless Criticism of Everything Existing

New Age Libertarian Manifesto

Another Prehistoric Woman

My Favorite Muslim

Antinominalist Anarchism

Marxism and Religion

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UK
Rory Stewart’s tweet has won April Fool’s Day

The former Tory leadership candidate had Twitter users gasping and checking the date with his intervention.

 by Henry Goodwin
2022-04-01 
in Politics


Rory Stewart may well have won April Fool’s Day after suckering in bemused Twitter users by announcing that he had been asked by Boris Johnson to serve as his new communications chief.

There is infamously no love lost between Stewart and the prime minister. The former Tory MP and minister wrote earlier this year that Johnson is “a terrible prime minister and a worse human being”.

In an article for the Financial Times, Stewart said: “Twenty years have passed since the Conservative party first selected him as a candidate. Michael Howard and David Cameron made him a shadow minister, and Theresa May gave him the Foreign Office.

“Thirty years of celebrity made him famous for his mendacity, indifference to detail, poor administration, and inveterate betrayal of every personal commitment. Yet, knowing this, the majority of Conservative MPs, and party members, still voted for him to be prime minister.

“He is not, therefore, an aberration, but a product of a system that will continue to produce terrible politicians long after he is gone.”

‘An honour’

But social media users apparently have short memories, as Stewart duped them with his jokey announcement on Friday morning.

He tweeted: “It is an honour to have been asked by the PM to serve as Director of Communications for No10 Downing Street.

“I am looking forward to working with the PM, Ministers and Members of Parliament on the issues that matter most to our country.”

Of course, some people quickly clocked the calendar and realised that Stewart was joking. But that didn’t stop some of his followers from getting very upset nonetheless.

 Check out some of these reactions.

Well played, Rory.

A tiny republic with a big heart: Exploring Uzupis in Lithuania

The self-proclaimed republic of Uzupis could be seen as a joke, but its foundation in Lithuania's capital has serious roots. DW's Heidi Fuller-Love meets with locals to learn more.

Let's take a tour through the self-proclaimed republic of Uzupis in Vilnius

Vilija Dovydenaite is the only official tour guide of Uzupis, one of the world's smallest republics, covering an area of less than 1 square kilometer, with barely 7,000 inhabitants. It's situated in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius.

Dovydenaite explains that Uzupis means "over the river" as we cross the Vilnele river on a narrow bridge and enter the republic at the heart of Vilnius. Dovydenaite points to a bronze mermaid sculpture tucked into a gap in the wall above the fast-flowing river. "Be careful — if you look into her eyes you'll never want to leave," she warns.  

The bronze mermaid by sculptor Romas Vilciauskas

Down at heel neighborhood...

Home to a thriving Jewish population before World War II, the small independent neighborhood of Uzupis was left derelict after the Holocaust. Empty houses were used as brothels and squats. "At first, artists moved here because rents were cheap," explains Dovydenaite. 

It was a local photographer, Saulius Paukstys, who then got the ball rolling. Paukstys hit on the idea of replacing one of Lenin's statues, which had been torn down at the end of the Soviet regime, with a Frank Zappa bust, despite the fact that the rockstar had never visited Lithuania. Two years later, on April Fool's Day 1997, Paukstys, along with the republic's current president, filmmaker Roman Lileikis, declared independence for the Republic of Uzupis, saying they wanted to create a place where people could be themselves without worrying about social mores. "It was all completely absurd, but it seemed to be a good test of our newfound democracy and freedom," Dovydenaite says. 

Attention, you're now crossing the border to the republic of Uzupis

She tells me that the self-proclaimed Republic of Uzupis has its own president, its own constitution, its own currency and four national flags — one for each season.

"In bad times the last thing you think of is art or poetry, so life was difficult for people who were creative and not adapted to life's daily struggles. This group of people were looking for a way to survive — they were looking for a new way to live together after the Soviet times when tolerance and respect did not exist," she says.

...transforms into an upmarket district

Although the Lithuanian government was initially hostile to the project, they soon got onboard. Within a few decades, the runaway republic had become accepted — although it's not recognized as an official nation by foreign governments. 

You never know what you'll find when strolling the streets of Uzupis

Despite being close to the city's old town, Uzupis, which was surrounded by the river on three sides, was cut off from the rest of Vilnius until the 16th century when a bridge was built to link it to the larger city beyond. Today, there are designer boutiques, trendy cafes and secret courtyards which are decorated with quirky objects. "Ironically, this is now the second most expensive part of the city after the old town — no struggling artist could afford to buy an apartment here now," Dovydenaite says. 

The statue of Archangel Gabriel is an important landmark in Uzupis

A tourist magnet

We visit the Uzupis Art Incubator, the first of its kind in the Baltic States. Artists from around the world come here to create experimental works. Next, we stop at a long wall covered in metal signs. Dovydenaite tells me this is Uzupis' constitution, which has been translated into over 50 different languages. There are more than forty articles, including: "Cats have the right to not love their owners" and "everyone has the right to be in doubt, but this is not an obligation."

"It's written in a funny way, but if you put it in the right context it has a lot of meaning," Dovydenaite says. "It's all about people learning to think for themselves again and express themselves freely after 70 years of oppression. You could say this is the first written document of human rights in post-Soviet Lithuania."

From quirky installations to colorful street art, there's plenty to see in Uzupis. The best time to visit this district, which is the most popular area for tourists in Vilnius, is on April Fool's Day. On the anniversary of the republic's independence, the borders are manned by special guards who stamp visitors' passports, while a former water fountain flows with beer, and the art and music events take place in the streets.

Street art can be found all around Uzupis

Artists lead anti-war protests

Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine on February 24th, many of the republic's 7,000 inhabitants have been involved in organizing city-wide protests and initiatives to demonstrate solidarity with Ukraine.

I meet Neringa Rekasiute, a local artist who has been involved in a number of art activism projects, such as her video "Swimming Through," set in the pond outside the Russian embassy.

"We dyed the pond red and then Ruta Meilutyte, an Olympic athlete, swam across it," she explains. "I wanted to show that the Russians have blood on their hands, but I also wanted to show hope, to show Ukrainians swimming through all this blood to reach freedom."


EXPLORING EASTERN EUROPE: LITHUANIA
Vilnius: Pearl of the Baltic
Vilnius, the exciting, multicultural capital, has sidewalk cafes, pubs and bars with live music, picturesque lanes, a castle complex and a great number of churches. Its historical center was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1994. One of the best-known sights in Vilnius is the Cathedral Basilica of St. Stanislaus and St. Ladislaus, seen here.
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Edited by: Benjamin Restle