Sure - like supernatural hoaxes, none of this could've happened in a population that was educated to automatically know better - but putting critical thinking in schools? What kind of weirdo freaks do you want us to turn into?
We're fine just the way we are,...
My mom and grandparents had firsthand experience with 2 of these: people got upset with Gramps when he told them "it's a radio show you goddamn morons! if I see any moon men or whatever, then I'll start to worry, until then..." with the War of the Worlds hysteria (which according to Mom and Dad, did indeed grip quite a few people).
ReplyDeleteAnd the Mattoon Mad gasser was most likely a chemical leak from the old Atlas plant...or possibly somebody playing a, really bad, prank, but Gramps' bet was on the chemical leak and people getting a case of war time freak out thanks not in part by a headline their local courier-gazette ran up there.
He had people pissy with him over that too. Folks down here were worried, even down in our small neck of the woods, that some mad gasser (or space aliens -- that radio show took a toll man! -- and some of the goofy paranormal people still posit this notion, of which some area Mormons are big time paranormal groupies) would show up there -- even though, as Gramps pointed out: the distance and quality of the roads plus smallness and isolated nature of the town would make that unlikely...of course quipping that all the gas in the world spewed out by some mad gasser would have no effect on the limited brain cells of the majority of inhabitants so there really wasn't anything thing to worry about was probably not a nice thing to say! Sure didn't win him any brownie points!
My folks and I used to laugh at how stupid and flighty people could get...but compared to what I'm seeing now, I'm not so sure the joke isn't on generations now -- seems like those backwards 30s-40s era bumpkins were less prone to panic and more sensible than some of the so-called smart, sophisticated folks now...
PW