Ladies and gentlemen, I have a grave announcement to make. Incredible as it may seem, both the observations of science and the evidence of our eyes lead to the inescapable assumption that those strange beings who landed in the Jersey farmlands tonight are the vanguard of an invading army from the planet Mars. – Orson Welles
On this day in 1938, Orson Welles and the Mercury Theater on the Air broadcast “The War of the Worlds”, a radio play adapted from H.G. Wells’ then-40-year-old novel of the same name. As you can hear for yourself, the play was cleverly structured so as to seem like news flashes were interrupting a music program; since the Mercury Theater had no sponsor (an atypical but not rare situation in 1938) it ran without commercials, thus lending a further air of verisimilitude. I’m sure I don’t need to remind anyone of the result of this realistic approach: many believed the story of a Martian invasion and, predictably, panicked. It’s become sort of a joke in the intervening 73 years; oh-so-clever modern Americans read about the events of that night and laugh at those “credulous fools”, those innocent yokels of a simpler time, believing in stories of invaders from Mars…even though many of these cosmopolitan sophisticates believe in tales of the government hiding alien bodies and devices in New Mexico and fantastic yarns of large fractions of the teen girl population spirited off into “child sex slavery” without anyone noticing.
There were a number of factors contributing to the panic, the most prominent of which was anxiety over the possibility of war in Europe; Germany had annexed the Sudetenland only three weeks earlier, and many were skeptical of Chamberlain’s claim that his policy of appeasement would produce “peace for our time”. Not every listener caught the part about the invaders being Martian; some assumed they were Germans using some new scientific weapon (the heat ray) and the familiar scourge of poison gas. One of the actors playing a government official “advising the nation” imitated president Franklin Roosevelt’s voice, and the lack of commercials and scant reminders that the show was a fiction (after the initial announcement, the next one wasn’t until the 40-minute mark) combined to make it all seem more real. In one small town in Washington State, a power-station fault during the broadcast blacked out both electricity and telephones, thus coincidentally simulating the effect of a Martian attack.
Furthermore, media historians believe that newspapers anxious to make their increasingly-popular competitor medium look bad may have exaggerated both the extent and the seriousness of the panic; though it is estimated that about 1.8 million listeners believed the story was true and 1.2 million of them were genuinely frightened by the broadcast, most of them did nothing more than jam the telephone lines of police departments and CBS affiliates and/or later file lawsuits against the network for “mental anguish” (in those saner days, judges dismissed all of the claims). There were a few incidents (such as the New Jersey farmer who blasted a water tower with his shotgun after mistaking it for a Martian tripod machine), but they were the exception rather than the rule.
Still, the fact remains that the first impulse of about 20% of the people who heard the broadcast was to overreact and to demand that authorities “do something” rather than simply verifying the reports by the simple expedient of changing the channel or calling newspaper offices when they couldn’t get through to the police. When faced with horrifying claims announced by perceived authorities, almost a third of listeners credulously accepted those claims as true without even trying to check them independently. And that, I’m afraid, hasn’t changed; when faced with patently ridiculous assertions from “authorities” that large percentages of the female population are raped or beaten by men every year, or that the entire country is infested with human-sacrificing cultists, or that nomadic hordes of tens of thousands of prostitutes follow major sporting events, or that almost one in 80 American girls is a “child sex slave”, or that the average sex worker is 13 years old, the reaction of many Americans is to believe without question and to repeat the outlandish tales without the slightest attempt at verification.
As in 1938, many people are anxious about an economic depression and fearful of violent invaders; they are distrustful of technology, worried about foreign influences and have blind faith in the statements of “authorities”. But unlike the Americans of 1938, modern people are not limited to a small number of limited, unidirectional sources of information; we have literally tens of thousands of sources at our command, and we can ourselves initiate requests for specific information from those sources rather than being forced to wait for those on the other end to make announcements. The audience panicked by Mr. Welles’ hoax had at least some excuse; the much-larger audience panicked by the neofeminist/governmental/rescue industry hoax does not. And though the fantasy they have accepted is perhaps not quite as implausible as that of a Martian invasion, it has swept the country for a decade rather than vanishing with the morning light.
One Year Ago Today
“Deadbeats” are those men who make appointments with no intention of keeping them, and so deserve to be choked by the Black Smoke or incinerated by heat rays.
The media/government wouldn’t lie to us, would they? Of course they would, if they can benefit by so doing.
A healthy skepticism should be taught in childhood. What is this person saying, why are they saying it, is it true, how do I check it’s true… and so on.
That’s the maddening thing about American society today- Any thing that happens, any little tragedy, and someone is campaigning for “A law against it!”.
Please. We’ve already got too many unreasonable, useless, contradictory and unenforceable laws on the books already. We’ve already got way too many people in jails and prisons.
All men are not rapists. The vast majority aren’t. It’s inevitable that men and women would have different points of view on sex, and there be occasional disagreements. But a disagreement among individuals doesn’t constitute rape. Porn and hooking aren’t rape. I answered my phone. I agreed to perform certain acts for a certain sum. I showed up, signed the papers, and did the job. If I feel bad afterward, that’s my own issue, and no one else’s.
And the average age of a prostitute is 13? Get real! Even the 20 years olds I used to compete with hadn’t seen age 13 in about 15 years.
LOL!
And you know it’s true!
Which is exactly why it’s funny! I was 28 for five years, then later on 31 for another three. 😉
“All Men are not Rapists”
^^ Well you wouldn’t know that by some of the TV I’ve been watching lately.
When STARZ came out with “Spartacus – Blood and Sand” and the second season … “Spartacus – Gods of the Arena” … I kind of got into it – even though the show was so damn dirty I had to vacuum the floor in front of my TV after watching it.
And now – I’m getting into the HBO series “ROME”.
Now – both of these series have a lot of sex in them – and most all of it is male predatory sex with debasement of women. Theres very little of the “tender stuff”. They really go out of their way, it seems, to depict sex as being unpleasant for the woman and a method used by men to “lord” their power over them.
And on ROME last night – the Legion First Spear tells one of the soldiers were one of the cleaner brothels is – and he says “It’s right next to the Venereal Temple”. So there was a “play” there on brothels and catching venereal disease – although, I’m not sure – but the “Venereal Temples” of Rome I think were just temples to worship the goddess Venus. I don’t think they cured the clap in those temples.
Well, you know, sometimes the dirty, hot, non-sweet and tender stuff can be fun too. Sometimes women like a bit of that too. Can’t always be having just one thing.
Oh – totally with you because my wife will tell you I’m not the sweet and tender type by a long shot. I think I’m articulating it wrongly. I guess what I mean is that sex is actually depicted as actual violence on those shows unnecessarily. It’s beyond just BDSM … with the gal ungagging herself at the end and saying … “Wow that was great!”
I’d like to see the rating demographics on those shows. Maybe I’m wrong and there are actually a lot of women who watch the shows. But somehow I get the notion that only guys watch them.
Non-sex worker woman: “I’d never have sex for money, or with someone I didn’t have feelings for!”
Sex workers:
“Sure, I’ll strip, and do porn, but I won’t hook. I’m not a whore.”
“I’d never show my face in my advertising.”
“My site is classy, with a few tasteful photographs, I don’t have a hardcore section.”
“I’d never let a client do that!”
Everyone has their tastes, and limits. That’s fine, it’s how it should be. The problem is so many people think their limits are THE limits, and they have to defend that. Humans are amazingly inventive, sexually. Just because it’s not your taste doesn’t mean it doesn’t rock someone else’s world.
Had I not done sexwork, I’d never know about so many amazing things people enjoy. Whenever a client asked for a particular kink, I always made myself stop and think- “Does this hurt anyone? Sure, it may be a bit weird, but if it’s not harmful, and if he enjoys it, then why not?” I didn’t always say yes, but I usually wasn’t sorry when I did. One more new experience.
Sounds like you had a lot of Sailors as clients. I take pride in the fact that we’re probably the most warped group of people out there.
I still remember my first time in the Philippines, in Olongapo. And my whole crew was at joint called “Hole in the Wall”. There was a dwarf hooker there – and she was the most in-demand girl in the entire place. Pretty incredible and no – I didn’t go there. But not because I have anything against little people. 😀
Stockbrokers have you sailors beat by a mile, on being warped. Sorry, but it’s true. I did see a sailor regularly, (A captain, none the less).
Dear Comixchik, THANK YOU for mentioning the women who don’t choose prostitution for themselves. You also didn’t make it a COMPLETELY NEGATIVE mention and thank you for that also! That’s very needed on here. While I’m with you on how no one should be ordering anyone else around, I do believe that ALL should have the freedom to defend their positions without being sworn at, called demeaning names, have wrong ASS-umptions made about them, etc. I learned a TON during the years I had sex only friends. Yes, I had some bad times. I was lied to way too much for my taste. BUT, I ALSO met a few GOOD men that I saw on a regular basis which was my goal. I made my goal! I never gave up on my goal and made it. I tried some things sexually that I was plain scared of before that (why I was afraid there’s many reasons for). I ended up loving some of them. 1 I didn’t get into and still don’t, but I’m proud I tried! Thank you for showing there’s room for ALL. Why not acknowledge that and work towards a better understanding instead of keeping up ###*** divisions, stereotypes, devaluing/minimizing the contributions of small groups that truly DO help sexually frustrated men, etc.? Thanks again!
You and me both, Baby. I had to wear that damned flea collar for a MONTH! j/k 😉
That was cool…lol!
I’ve got nothing against non-sex worker women. Why should I? In fact, I believe there are many women doing sex work who shouldn’t be. They just aren’t suited to it. And that’s where a lot of trouble comes in. They’re often the one whinging on about how awful it was after. For them, probably so, as they should have never done it in the first place.
The problem with showing sex on TV or in movies is that unless you throw in something kinky, some power dynamic, something, it isn’t all that interesting. Oh, for adolescents who haven’t seen anything, sure, or people who are vicariously hot for one or more of the actors. But absent an emotional involvement or some hormonal boost at the least, sex is an uncomely business from the outside.
But then I’m somebody who can understand PLAYING sports, but not watching them. I seriously feel that one of the biggest mines in the minefield of talking sensibly about sex and legal policy is that unless you are emotionally or hormonally attracted to one or more participants, sex looks a little creepy from outside. It reminds me of the little film loops they used to show in grade school of insects extruding various appendages and liquids. It says that we are, on some level, meat machines, which is something we’d rather not confront.
Or maybe I’m wrong, and my opinion is limited to me and a few low-sex drive cranks.
What does anybody else think?
My favorite incidence of “mass hysteria” is the Sepoy mutiny – which kicked off the Indian Rebellion in 1857.
It was started over a “rumor” that the cartridges for the new Enfield 1853 rifle, which was being issued to Indian troops by the British – were coated in either pork fat or beef tallow. The rifle drill called for biting the end off the cartridge in order to load the rifle. Of course – Muslim troops were outraged that possibly the cartridges were coated in pork fat – and the Hindu troops had an equal religious repulsion and no one wanted to put the cartridges in their mouths.
The rumor, most probably, was started by Indian Princes – who were growing increasingly upset by British influence and insensitivity to Indian culture.
Like all good rumors – there was actually a grain of truth as some idiot in the war department in London saw nothing wrong with shipping some beef tallow coated cartridges to India for issuing to Hindu troops. However, the Brits in India were quick to realize this and pull those cartridges. They also offered to allow the Indians to make their own cartridges (which the Indians just took as proof that all the cartridges were dipped in the bad stuff) and they offered to allow the Indians to break open the cartridges by hand – keeping them out of their mouths if they were really that concerned.
Didn’t work – and the Sepoy troops mutinied which set off a rebellion throughout India.
Not as good an example of “mass hysteria” as “War of the Worlds” – which was a hysteria made up from whole cloth. However – it’s still a good lesson in “herd mentality” and how motivations can be mistaken. The Brit’s weren’t trying to hold Indian religious beliefs in contempt – they were just being stupid. And the revolting Indians were actually being played as “pawns” by their own nobility.
That’s a brilliant example of how to manipulate the masses. Noted. Now we just need to craft a ploy to elicit incontrovertible mass-support of personal freedoms…
“The rumor, most probably, was started by Indian Princes – who were growing increasingly upset by British influence and insensitivity to Indian culture.”
There is a certain amount of evidence to indicate that the “Indian Culture” that the Princes were so concerned about amounted to “The right to take whatever we want, any time we want it, and kill anybody who interferes”. Not that the British were angels; they wanted a profit. It’s damned hard to make a profit if the local potentate believes he has a right to take several months production on a whim, or kill your best craftsmen because they are peasants. The Indian Princes were a bunch obnoxious swine, and any narrative that puts them in an even slightly good light should be double checked. Not necessarily disbelieved, just confirmed before believing.
Anybody who likes a good snarking should find and read a copy of Eric Frank Russell’s THE RABBLE ROUSERS, which includes a chapter on the day the Martians didn’t land.
Drat, I can’t find my copy (I wanted to quote the section that calls Wells “the fat boy of the abby”). If you go looking, be prepared to take a little trouble; it was only ever printed once, in paperback, at about 1961 (I think). But it is an endless source of pleasure for people who enjoy the likes of S. J. Perelman.
Martian attack, ritual Satanic abuse, child sex slavery… Why is there always some ill-informed group loudly demanding that the government Do Something? Why all this willful blindness?
I’m going to sit back in my armchair psychology La-Z-Boy and steeple my fingers here. If the sex trafficking hysterics were truly interested in the welfare of adolescent girls, they would give a damn about things like facts and evidence and reality. They’d find no shortage of real challenges facing young women, and they’d find productive and effective ways to help them.
So this isn’t about omg saveing teh childern. This is about ostentatiously signaling their own moral rectitude. The worse the sex trafficking crisis, the more important are their efforts against it – and by extension, the more important they themselves must be.
But you’ve seen a lot more of them than I have, Maggie. Am I way off the mark here?
No, I don’t think you’re far off at all. I think many if not most of them are sheeple who are genuinely unable to tell the difference between truth and lies pronounced by self-appointed “authorities”, so of course they’re angry about “Satanic cults” or “communists” or “child sex trafficking”, as would any moral person be if those things were actually true. But IMHO the leaders of the panic, those who keep it going, are exactly the kind of amoral opportunist you describe.
This has nothing to do with the topic at hand, but I’d like to wish you the happiest of all Happy Birthdays.
(I’m not going to ask how old you are.)
I would offer to give you the traditional birthday spanking, but I don’t think I can afford your fee. 🙂
Thank you, Platypus; I’m 45, as I announce in today’s column (which will be going live in about an hour). 🙂
Well the whole thing is not far from the ludicrous pantomime we have going now with the Euro. Its always the same. The guvment (or someone) creates a crisis, the people demand “someone must do something” and the guvment steps in with the “solution”.
From “saving abused sex workers or trafficked people” to “protecting women from all those men who will beat them on superbowl sunday” to “protecting the children by taking them off their fathers and putting them into the most dangerous situation of all”.
The answer is rescind consent to be governed and govern yourself. For if you do not govern yourself, someone will surely govern you for you.
Being invaded by Martians was far far more plausible in the 1930s than the average age of prostitutes being 13. Heck, I’d much sooner believe space alien invasion today than that figure. If we keep it as invaders from Mars… well, we know enough about Mars now that that’s about balanced. No, who am I joking. I’d STILL believe Martian invaders sooner – I’d just have to conclude that they lived under the surface.
Let’s compare:
1 – back then, information on Mars was sparse. we had never been to Mars and didn’t have sufficient spectroscopy to be sure that it was all THAT cold.
2 – back then was a scant few years after we’d begun transmitting radio signals, so if they were listening, the timing was right. And we were being pretty scary, so they’d have plenty of reason to move in quick.
So you have possibility and motive.
vs
1 – With all the fucktons of porn available these days, gathering data on at least one segment of the sex industry is trivial. You can easily observe that the vast majority is of over-18s, and a substantial part of over-30s, and primarily of women who intended to be in it – and many of those who didn’t so intend never found out that they were being photographed at all (which with prostitution would be really hard to pull off).
2 – In order to pull down the average from there, you’d have to load the prostitution industry down with hordes of <7-year old prostitutes. There simply isn't demand for that age range. 13 is about the bottom end of plausibility for anything approaching mainstream, and supply will follow demand.
So you have neither supply nor demand.
Well, there is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9tEz-g_rvUlolicon.
Funny thing about lolicon, though: it isn’t real.
So yeah, you’re right. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to find some Martian porn.