Hi everyone,
This is a thoughtful group of posts. I enjoyed reading your responses to the video, film, and article and hope you will continue to respond to each other over the next few days. If you think you might want to pursue the issues of this week for your research topic, I recommend a documentary film, called “The Atomic Café.” It has a lot of government footage from the time period and addresses some of the issues that were raised about the government’s intentions at the time. The tone is polemical, but you will get a sense of the official messages that were being orchestrated. You might also see “On the Beach” and “Fail Safe.”
I’ll call attention here to a few of the posts that stood out for me as a beginning model for your research papers because there was an effective argument and analysis made along with descriptions of personal response. The essays of course will need citation and full use of sources, as indicated in the syllabus. Colby’s discussion of “Dr. Strangelove” and the role of satire for serious critique is excellent. Remember that the film came out in 1964 to get a sense of how these governmental messages were being disputed at the time.
I want to commend Danielle’s post as well because she has drawn insightfully on material from another course. The history of childhood is particularly relevant to the emergence of Christian fundamentalism in the late 19th and 20th centuries, as Kirsch points out in his discussion of Darby and the Scofield Bible. Combining that analysis with cultural constructions of paranoia is a fruitful exploration.
I also want to make special mention of Amy’s responses as a model of interaction. This is the kind of online discussion that sharpens our understanding.
As for my own experience of Duck and Cover life, I have this to tell. When I was in 5th grade (around 1956), my elementary school called upon mothers to volunteer to pick groups of us up for atomic explosion drills and drive us to the military base in Orlando. I was proud that my mother was a volunteer, but when the first drill came along, we filed out and into cars and as she drove around, she couldn’t fine the base. So she just took us to the Dairy Queen instead and then delivered us back to school. Maybe that was the best anti-paranoia strategy to employ!
But there was definitely tension, both in school and in neighborhoods. We certainly practiced Duck and Cover and I think we both expected it to work and knew it wouldn’t at the same time. I also remember a group of neighbors meeting at my house to discuss the dangers of fluoridation in water—said to be a “commie plot” and whether or not to build fall out shelters—we didn’t. From what several of you have said about 9/11, the aftermath may provide a similar ambivalence regarding terrorism.
Be thinking about your research topics!
Best, Lee
