Little Green Men, Meowing Nuns and Head-Hunting Panics

Little Green Men, Meowing Nuns and Head-Hunting Panics PDF Author: Robert E. Bartholomew
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 9780786409976
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 308

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Book Description
"For a two week period in 1956, residents in the vicinity of Taipei, Taiwan, lived in fear that they would be the next victims of a crazed villain who was prowling the streets and slashing people at random with a razor or similar weapon. At least 21 victims were reported during this period, mostly women and children of low income and education." A thorough investigation revealed however, that: "five slashings were innocent false reports, seven were self-inflicted cuts, eight were due to cuts rather than razors, and one was complete fantasy." This is one example of many cases of what has traditionally been called "mass hysteria" that are examined in this comprehensive study of human beings' fear of the unknown. Beginning with a concise history of mass hysteria and social delusions, the author differentiates between the two and investigates mass hysteria in closed settings such as work and school, and mass hysteria in communities with incidents such as gassings, Pokemon illnesses in Japan, and medieval dance crazes. Also examined are collective delusions, with information on five major types: immediate threat, symbolic scare, mass wish fulfillment, urban legends and mass panics. The book ends with a discussion of major issues in the area of mass hysteria and a look toward the future of this intriguing subject.

Little Green Men, Meowing Nuns and Head-Hunting Panics

Little Green Men, Meowing Nuns and Head-Hunting Panics PDF Author: Robert E. Bartholomew
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 9780786409976
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 308

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Book Description
"For a two week period in 1956, residents in the vicinity of Taipei, Taiwan, lived in fear that they would be the next victims of a crazed villain who was prowling the streets and slashing people at random with a razor or similar weapon. At least 21 victims were reported during this period, mostly women and children of low income and education." A thorough investigation revealed however, that: "five slashings were innocent false reports, seven were self-inflicted cuts, eight were due to cuts rather than razors, and one was complete fantasy." This is one example of many cases of what has traditionally been called "mass hysteria" that are examined in this comprehensive study of human beings' fear of the unknown. Beginning with a concise history of mass hysteria and social delusions, the author differentiates between the two and investigates mass hysteria in closed settings such as work and school, and mass hysteria in communities with incidents such as gassings, Pokemon illnesses in Japan, and medieval dance crazes. Also examined are collective delusions, with information on five major types: immediate threat, symbolic scare, mass wish fulfillment, urban legends and mass panics. The book ends with a discussion of major issues in the area of mass hysteria and a look toward the future of this intriguing subject.

The Mystery of Market Movements

The Mystery of Market Movements PDF Author: Niklas Hageback
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1118845005
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 192

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Book Description
A quantifiable framework for unlocking the unconscious forcesthat shape markets There has long been a notion that subliminal forces play a greatpart in causing the seemingly irrational financial bubbles, whichconventional economic theory, again and again, fails to explain.However, these forces, sometimes labeled ‘animalspirits’ or ‘irrational exuberance, have remainedelusive - until now. The Mystery of Market Movementsprovides you with a methodology to timely predict and profit fromchanges in human investment behaviour based on the workings of thecollective unconscious. Niklas Hageback draws in on one of psychology's most influentialideas - archetypes - to explain how they form investor’sperceptions and can be predicted and turned into profit. TheMystery of Market Movements provides; A review of the collective unconscious and its archetypes basedon Carl Jung’s theories and empirical case studies thathighlights and assesses the influences of the collectiveunconscious on financial bubbles and zeitgeists For the first time being able to objectively measure the impactof archetypal forces on human thoughts and behaviour with a view toprovide early warning signals on major turns in the markets. Thisis done through a step-by-step guide on how to develop ameasurement methodology based on an analysis of the language of theunconscious; figurative speech such as metaphors and symbolism,drawn out and deciphered from Big Data sources, allowingfor quantification into time series The book is supplemented with an online resource that presentscontinuously updated bespoken archetypal indexes with predictivecapabilities to major financial indexes Investors are often unaware of the real reasons behindtheir own financial decisions. This book explains why psychologicaldrivers in the collective unconscious dictates not only investmentbehaviour but also political, cultural and social trends.Understanding these forces allows you to stay ahead of the curveand profit from market tendencies that more traditional methodscompletely overlook.

The Dancing Plague

The Dancing Plague PDF Author: John Waller
Publisher: Sourcebooks, Inc.
ISBN: 1402247370
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 290

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Book Description
A gripping tale of one of history's most bizarre events, and what it reveals about the strange possibilities of human nature In the searing July heat of 1518, Frau Troffea stepped into the streets of Strasbourg and began to dance. Bathed in sweat, she continued to dance. Overcome with exhaustion, she stopped, and then resumed her solitary jig a few hours later. Over the next two months, roughly four hundred people succumbed to the same agonizing compulsion. At its peak, the epidemic claimed the lives of fifteen men, women, and children a day. Possibly 100 people danced to their deaths in one of the most bizarre and terrifying plagues in history. John Waller compellingly evokes the sights, sounds, and aromas; the diseases and hardships; the fervent supernaturalism and the desperate hedonism of the late medieval world. Based on new evidence, he explains why the plague occurred and how it came to an end. In doing so, he sheds light on the strangest capabilities of the human mind and on our own susceptibility to mass hysteria.

Moral Panic and the Politics of Anxiety

Moral Panic and the Politics of Anxiety PDF Author: SEAN HIER
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 113519811X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 261

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Book Description
Moral Panic and the Politics of Anxiety is a collection of original essays written by some of the world’s leading social scientists. It seeks to provide unique insight into the importance of moral panic as a routine feature of everyday life, whilst also developing an integrated framework for moral panic research by widening the scope of scholarship in the area. Many of the key twenty-first century contributions to moral panic theory have moved beyond the parameters of the sociology of deviance to consider the importance of moral panic for identity formation, national security, industrial risk, and character formation. Reflecting this growth, the book brings together recognized moral panic researchers with prominent scholars in moral regulation, social problems, cultural fear, and health risks, allowing for a more careful and critical discussion around the cultural and political significance of moral panic to emerge. This book will prove valuable reading for both undergraduate and postgraduate students on courses such as politics and the media, regulatory policy, the body and identity, theory and political sociology, and sociology of culture.

The Next War in the Air

The Next War in the Air PDF Author: Brett Holman
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317022637
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 302

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Book Description
In the early twentieth century, the new technology of flight changed warfare irrevocably, not only on the battlefield, but also on the home front. As prophesied before 1914, Britain in the First World War was effectively no longer an island, with its cities attacked by Zeppelin airships and Gotha bombers in one of the first strategic bombing campaigns. Drawing on prewar ideas about the fragility of modern industrial civilization, some writers now began to argue that the main strategic risk to Britain was not invasion or blockade, but the possibility of a sudden and intense aerial bombardment of London and other cities, which would cause tremendous destruction and massive casualties. The nation would be shattered in a matter of days or weeks, before it could fully mobilize for war. Defeat, decline, and perhaps even extinction, would follow. This theory of the knock-out blow from the air solidified into a consensus during the 1920s and by the 1930s had largely become an orthodoxy, accepted by pacifists and militarists alike. But the devastation feared in 1938 during the Munich Crisis, when gas masks were distributed and hundreds of thousands fled London, was far in excess of the damage wrought by the Luftwaffe during the Blitz in 1940 and 1941, as terrible as that was. The knock-out blow, then, was a myth. But it was a myth with consequences. For the first time, The Next War in the Air reconstructs the concept of the knock-out blow as it was articulated in the public sphere, the reasons why it came to be so widely accepted by both experts and non-experts, and the way it shaped the responses of the British public to some of the great issues facing them in the 1930s, from pacifism to fascism. Drawing on both archival documents and fictional and non-fictional publications from the period between 1908, when aviation was first perceived as a threat to British security, and 1941, when the Blitz ended, and it became clear that no knock-out blow was coming, The Next War in the Air provides a fascinating insight into the origins and evolution of this important cultural and intellectual phenomenon, Britain's fear of the bomber.

Men in African Film & Fiction

Men in African Film & Fiction PDF Author: Lahoucine Ouzgane
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer Ltd
ISBN: 1847015212
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 194

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Book Description
Fills a gap in the international literature by offering new insights into the heterogeneous ways in which African men are performing, negotiating and experiencing masculinity. Through their analysis of the depictions in film and literature of masculinities in colonial, independent and post-independent Africa, the contributors open some key African texts to a more obviously politicized set of meanings. Collectively, the essays provide space for rethinking current theory on gender and masculinity: - how only some of the most popular theories in masculinity studies in the West hold true in African contexts; - howWestern masculinities react with indigenous masculinities on the continent; - how masculinity and femininity in Africa seem to reside more on a continuum of cultural practices than on absolutely opposite planes; - andhow generation often functions as a more potent metaphor than gender. Lahoucine Ouzgane is Associate Professor of English & Film Studies, University of Alberta, Canada.

Religion, Supernaturalism, the Paranormal and Pseudoscience

Religion, Supernaturalism, the Paranormal and Pseudoscience PDF Author: Homayun Sidky
Publisher: Anthem Press
ISBN: 1785271636
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 520

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Book Description
"Religion, Supernaturalism, the Paranormal, and Pseudoscience" provides a comprehensive rejoinder to the challenges posed to science, scientific anthropology, evolutionary theory and rationality by the advocates of supernatural, paranormal, and pseudoscientific perspectives and modes of thought associated with the current rise of irrationalism, antiintellectualism, and emboldened religious fundamentalism and violence. Drawing upon H. Sidky’s scientific anthropological background and ethnographic field research of supernatural and paranormal beliefs and practices in several cultures over three decades, the book answers several important questions: Why do humans have a proclivity for the supernatural and paranormal thinking? Why has humanity remained shackled to sets of ideas inherited from a violent past that have no basis in reality and which bestow an illusionary solace, promote bloodshed, endless cruelties and fervent hatreds, and have come at a high cost? Why have ancient superstitions been held as sacred, inviolate truths while other aspects of the archaic belief systems of which they were a part have long been discarded? Why have not humans outgrown religion and paranormal beliefs?

Bad Clowns

Bad Clowns PDF Author: Benjamin Radford
Publisher: University of New Mexico Press
ISBN: 0826356664
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 216

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Book Description
A short history of the earliest clowns -- The despicable rogue Mr. Punch -- The unnatural nature of the evil clown -- Coulrophobia: Fear of clowns -- Bad clowns of the Ink -- Bad clowns of the Screen -- Bad clowns of the Song -- The carnal carnival: Buffoon boffing and clown sex -- Creepy, criminal, and killer clowns -- Activist clowns -- Crazed caged carny clowns -- The phantom clowns -- Troll clowns and the future of bad clowns

The War of the Worlds

The War of the Worlds PDF Author: Peter J. Beck
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1474229891
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 404

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Book Description
First published in 1897, H.G. Wells's alien invasion narrative The War of the Worlds was a landmark work of science fiction and one that continues to be adapted and referenced in the 21st century. Chronicling the novel's contexts, its origins and its many multi-media adaptations, this book is a complete biography of the life – and the afterlives – of The War of the Worlds. Exploring the original text's compelling sense of place and vivid recreation of Wells's Woking home and the concerns of fin-de-siécle Britain, the book goes on to chart the novel's immediate international impact. Starting with the initial serialisations in US newspapers, Peter Beck goes on to examine Orson Welles's legendary 1938 radio adaptation, TV and film adaptations from George Pal to Steven Spielberg, Jeff Wayne's rock opera and the numerous other works that have taken their inspiration from Wells's original. Drawing on new archival research, this is a comprehensive account of the continuing impact of The War of the Worlds.

Getting It Wrong

Getting It Wrong PDF Author: W. Joseph Campbell
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520291298
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 366

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Book Description
Many of American journalism’s best-known and most cherished stories are exaggerated, dubious, or apocryphal. They are media-driven myths, and they attribute to the news media and their practitioners far more power and influence than they truly exert. In Getting It Wrong, writer and scholar W. Joseph Campbell confronts and dismantles prominent media-driven myths, describing how they can feed stereotypes, distort understanding about the news media, and deflect blame from policymakers. Campbell debunks the notions that the Washington Post’s Watergate reporting brought down Richard M. Nixon’s corrupt presidency, that Walter Cronkite’s characterization of the Vietnam War in 1968 shifted public opinion against the conflict, and that William Randolph Hearst vowed to “furnish the war” against Spain in 1898. This expanded second edition includes a new preface and new chapters about the first Kennedy-Nixon debate in 1960, the haunting Napalm Girl photograph of the Vietnam War, and bogus quotations driven by the Internet and social media.