War of the Worlds
On October 30th, 1938, Martians landed in Grover’s Mill, NJ and began their invasion of the United States by advancing on New York City. At least that’s how some remember it. About 6 million people tuned in to CBS radio during Orson Welles’ dramatization of H.G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds. Estimates vary widely, but somewhere between a few thousand and 1 million of those listeners panicked.
This was the Golden Age of radio. 75% of American families owned a radio, and the world was changing as up-to-the-minute information streamed into homes for the first time in history. For most of those people, radio was their primary source of information, as well as entertainment. It had brought people the sounds of war, straight from the battlefield. There were constant updates about the actions of Nazi Germany following the Munich Crisis, as the world waited for the other shoe to drop. Unprecedented access to information gave the radio credibility, and the uncertain global political climate had people on edge.
So, on that Sunday evening, when millions turned their dials to CBS radio and heard a fake newscast break into a fake program with the fake news that Mars was attacking New Jersey, people believed it blindly and without question. Radio equaled truth, and fear is the enemy of reason. People called the police. They packed up their cars and prepared to flee. They loaded their weapons and prepared to defend their homes against the alien onslaught.
What does any of this have to do with the topic of this blog? I’m glad you asked. The War of the Worlds incident proves that large numbers of people will believe ridiculous things if 1) they’re told by a source they believe to be credible and 2) they’re scared. Why then has religious feeling surged in the United States since September 11? I leave you to do the math for yourself.
~I AM~
June 10th, 2005 at at 3:23 pm
I’m in radio, and an on-going joke among a couple of guys I work with goes: ‘The man on the radio said so, so it must be true.’
Great blog, by the way… I found you at RA’s site.
June 10th, 2005 at at 3:31 pm
Nowadays, if we were really attacked, they’d turn it into a reality TV show. I mean they couldn’t show that on the news. That would be unfair and unbalanced. In other words, liberal.
June 10th, 2005 at at 4:53 pm
I really hate to say it, but there is no getting around the realization that most people are stupid and easily manipulated. Religion provides the most compelling evidence for this claim. We hope our children eventually outgrow the notion that Superman is real, but what about the Christian superman?
June 10th, 2005 at at 6:18 pm
vjack:
As long as they believe in the Nietzschean Superman, the others will take care of themselves.
June 10th, 2005 at at 6:55 pm
Since you referenced 9/11, I know this is bordering on the political, but it seems to me that religion and the “War or Terrorism” go hand in hand. Both rely on submission to authority and both prey on the fear of its followers.
vjack says: I really hate to say it, but there is no getting around the realization that most people are stupid and easily manipulated.
Yep. I can’t tell you how many times I have thought someone was fairly intelligent (or at least had a lot of common sense) only to find out that they think an invisible daddy lives in the sky. For some reason, my opinion of their intelligence drops drastically with that revelation.
June 10th, 2005 at at 9:48 pm
And what makes it more annoying is that these “fairly intelligent” people still think it’s incredibly disrespectful to try to debate religion. Yet it is acceptable to go and insult people about their political views. Because “all opinions are equal” (a contradiction with the politics point anyways), you can’t outright say “It’s irrational to refrain from touching a light switch on Fridays!”
And that’s what really pisses me off.
June 11th, 2005 at at 2:16 am
Yeah, I agree. While I can have a decent amount of respect for someone regardless of their religious views, there is definitely an upper limit for those who believe such ridiculous things.
June 11th, 2005 at at 6:34 am
Am I the only one that hates feeling in the minority in a crowd of people? (pick a crowd, any crowd) Especially since I’m usually the only one that has reasons to back up my “wild” claims.
Oh, and what about when people say “I’ll pray for you,” or “you don’t need to believe in God, he believes in you.” It’s like they go out of their way to disrespect your point of view and have the last word.
And… um… also, the radio is full of right-wing Christians (ooh! Saved myself. I almost got off topic there…).
June 11th, 2005 at at 10:50 am
2) they’re scared And this answers it all right here. People who are scared will believe anything. People want to believe there is life after death, so therefore religion lives on. When in fact, there is nothing after death. You cease to exist. And I’m fine with that.
June 11th, 2005 at at 12:23 pm
I think it’s more of a herd instinct. The lazy way is to follow the herd. You feel included and have others to watch out for you while you graze. And when the herd stampedes, you’d better run too or else you get trampled.
June 11th, 2005 at at 5:48 pm
Charles, I like the herd instinct analogy.
I Am, I noticed the cool watermark you have for anti-plagarism. Are you big into computers? You seem to have the proverbial shit together.
June 11th, 2005 at at 7:37 pm
Pixelation, I am with you on the being in the minority feeling. I generally avoid religion and politics - because I find my views dramatically differ from everyone else’s. Whether I am with conservatives or liberals I am bound to say something offensive. Add the atheism, and I’m just a complete outcast!
I AM, I agree, as usual, with you. People are stupid. People want, as Charles sort of touched on, to be led. I think it’s not even so much about laziness… I think it ties into the excellent post you did on religion and responsibility. People don’t like responsibility… it sucks. The better our “leaders” are - whether governmental or religious or anything, really - the less “work” we seem to have to be responsible for.
Stupid people are particularly vulnerable/susceptible to the BS of fundamentalism, in all of its forms! However, there are relatively well-educated people who also fall prey… in those cases, I often wonder if it’s just that somehow, somewhere along the way they lost their ability to synthesize material, to take it apart and ask, well wait a minute, you think what happened when?
June 11th, 2005 at at 8:14 pm
PS. Call me a computer dumbass, but BW, what are you talking about? I don’t see a watermark…
And btw, don’t you remember? I AM is ‘ineffable’. He won’t tell you anyway ;).
June 12th, 2005 at at 11:04 pm
boywonder:
I do fancy myself to be a bit of a guru of information technology. However, like addict_no_more, I have no idea what you’re talking about. I mean… er… right. I did it. It’s damn impressive, don’t you think? No, really, I have no idea.
June 13th, 2005 at at 3:26 pm
It’s sweetness on a stick. Just to prove it, I’ll tell you what it looks like. It’s a buncha squares with different religious logos in them. I saw a crucifix, a jewish star, a yin-yang, and a few others. I wondered how you got that. I mean you can’t go to coolreligiouswatermarks.com or anything. I hope I didn’t spoil your terrible secret.
June 13th, 2005 at at 3:33 pm
Ah. That’s just the site background. If you’re using 800×600 resolution, you can barely see it around the edges. It’s clear on anything above that.
I did design it, and I do think it’s cool, but it’s purely aesthetic.
June 13th, 2005 at at 6:40 pm
Damn! I thought I saw something I shouldn’t! Does that mean I over-estimated your computer skills I Am? You certainly know how bad my are now! LOL!