I was surprised, when watching the nine-minute “Duck and Cover” video, how strange it must have been to have been growing up as a child, or even to be living as an adult, when the very (seemingly) real threat of the world’s destruction hung in the air. In Charles Strozier’s piece, Fundamentalist Mindset, Strozier discusses how apocalyptic time is seen, to believers, as being within this kairotic, before-and-after way. However, though I couldn’t help thinking how believers may not have felt fear (or not as much fear) during the Cold War if they believed the end was The End. The “Duck and Cover” video remains fairly secular in the fact that there is no religious mentioning of being “saved,” but at the same time it deludes children with the idea that, if they properly follow instructions, they will transcend an otherwise disastrous fate – they will transcend a death that they might not even be aware of transcending (I dont’ know how many seven-year-olds are aware that the “Duck and Cover” methods were not actually preventing anything if a bomb was dropped near them).
Watching the “Duck and Cover” video also reminded me of my experience when 9/11 happened… though I was in Texas attending school about thirty minutes from Houston, kids were taken out of school for protection. My parents found the idea of taking children out of school because of 9/11 baffling when faced with the explanation of, “What if we are bombed?” Why my elementary school would be a target for bombing is an entirely other issue, but the idea that removing kids would have done anything in the face of real danger was a false attempt at controlling something completely bizarre – and in a way, unrelated to our small elementary school. The idea of transcending any danger is in itself an interesting topic, because it seems that for large portions of Christian Americans, this was a logical assumption and preparation against some kind of threat.
My brother and I were actually a couple of the many kids that were taken out of school that day. We were told over the PA system that some of our parents would be coming to get us because of what’d happened and we didn’t really get why but then again, we were like 9. It turned out not to be anything other than just our parents wanting us home. They didn’t think they could protect us from another attack or a bomb if that was going to come next. They just wanted us with them, just in case.
It’s like when people thinking about December 21st now and just say that they want to be with loved ones. There’s no sure outcome for what’ll happen the next day and especially not in a couple of hours but having family close, especially your children, makes you feel better. I think it’s more that than an idea of being able to transcend. And as for uselessness of the duck and cover, I touched on it briefly in my response. It’s not so much that it’s meant to do something but that if they know they’re supposed to be doing something, they feel hopeful. Their parents may or may not have known that duck and cover was completely useless but being able to tell the kids, ‘Remember what they taught us,’ allows for a sense of calm even through the worse scenarios because you know what to do.
The worst thing about the idea of an apocalypse is the fact that no one knows what to do if it happened. Nuclear war? We’re screwed. People are getting raptured? Screwed if you weren’t picked up. Natural disasters a la 2012? Extra screwed.
The fire drills at school were stupid to us because if a fire actually did ever happen, who in their right mind is going to walk completely in silence down the stairs? We’re going to run. Normally. But for that person, those little first graders that are scared motionless, having instructions yelled at you in the heat of the moment helps. You’re on autopilot working on muscle memory, but at least you’re doing something. Being idle and watching is probably worse than just standing around watching your world fall apart. I think that taking kids out of school over something like that isn’t an attempt to control something bizarre so much that it is trying to control something that can be controlled as well as simply trying to comfort.