Are We Smarter Than Our Ancestors?
When I was a kid, the postman semi-annually delivered a booklet-sized mail-order catalog with an odd mix of hundreds of household gadgets and cheap novelties: personalized pencils, cat toys, jumping beans and kitschy doorstops, et al.
The catalog also displayed the above-pictured LP cover of Orson Welles’ 1938 War of the Worlds radio broadcast mockudrama. As did the sensationalistic record cover, the catalog’s caption said that panicked Americans ran screaming into the streets or had heart attacks after hearing a radio report that Martians had invaded the US; specifically, my native New Jersey. Intrigued, I uncharacteristically asked my mother to buy the record. She declined.
Fortunately, a few years later, in the sixth grade, one of my classmates brought this record to school and convinced our diminutive, permed-black-haired, forty-something teacher, Mrs. Kasper, to play it. Mrs. Kasper was very nice and didn’t push her students or herself too hard. It was a fun year in school and sports. If the schools and the town sports leagues had been closed, there would be a void in my memory where many pleasing memories reside.
Perhaps Mrs. Kasper rationalized that hearing this record would provide a pop sociology or life lesson. Regardless, I was excited to hear this bucket list LP. As they said on the TV ad for a rock anthology album, “Put the needle in the first groove and let it wail!”
It turned out that my mother had shown good judgment by not ordering that record. The radio show was, as were Coronamania Era videos of morgue trucks or Chinese guys falling onto sidewalks, hokey and unconvincing. Less than halfway through, I couldn’t wait for the record to end. Sometimes life is like that: the thing that you had to have or the place you had to go to can become that thing you’re eager to get rid of or the place you’re itching to leave.
Be that as it may, after the program ended, Mrs. Kasper reminded us, as had the mail order catalog and urban legend tellers, that, despite the show’s implausibility, many people believed that Martians were invading and consequently, freaked out.
Those who’ve studied the War of the Worlds reaction have concluded that the extent of the purported panic was exaggerated, especially by newspapers seeking to discredit the medium of radio, with which they were competing for audience and thus, advertising revenue. One historian reported that only 6 million Americans heard the program. Of those, only 20% believed the scam. Of these, only a fraction bugged out. While many called the police to see if Martians had really invaded, most correctly perceived the program as theater of the mind. They looked out their windows, saw neither UFOs nor incendiary death rays and went on with their nights.
But as during Coronamania, why let the truth get in the way of a good myth?
Having recently reached Piaget’s formal-operational stage of cognitive development, and t
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LewRockwell.com is a libertarian website that publishes articles, essays, and blog posts advocating for minimal government, free markets, and individual liberty. The site was founded by Lew Rockwell, an American libertarian political commentator, activist, and former congressional staffer. The website often features content that is critical of mainstream politics, state intervention, and foreign policy, among other topics. It is a platform frequently used to disseminate Austrian economics, a school of economic thought that is popular among some libertarians.
