We All Live in Potemkin Village
Seeing past the pretense of perfection
“All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.” — William Shakespeare
A “false front” is where the front of a building extends upwards beyond the roof, with nothing really situated behind it.
The adventurous businessmen of the Old West knew there was a good chance their newly built towns wouldn’t last too long, so they scrimped on spending.
They also wanted to impress those opulent tourists who came sauntering through town too — thus, the false-but-pretty and useless front.
We probably know them more from Westerns — those Earthbound versions of Star Wars — where you’d see gunmen falling humorously off rickety tall wooden walls overtop the saloon or the House of the Rising Gun.
Not just because of historical accuracy — the filmmakers also needed cheap temporary buildings to use in front of the cameras. Yet, we, the movie goers, just as the tourists, still marvel at the grandioseness of the set.
But pull back the veil and it all comes crashing down.
