MASS HYSTERIA OF THE 80’s

MASS HYSTERIA OF THE 80’s

The 1980’s was an incredible time in history, that led to incredible jumps in technology, social science, and real world sciences. Although the times seemed to be displayed in neon colors and up-beat music, the 80’s had its downfalls. 

Such downfalls include the rise in survivalism, an increase in sexual media, the satanic panic, and increasingly involved media and therapy in daily life. These downfalls only aided in the tension of the cold war and societies ever growing agitation with the times. 

Survivalism 

Survivalism is a social movement of individuals or groups who prepare for emergencies, societal downfall, or “doomsdays” caused by political or economic crises. Preparations by survivalists can be long term or short term based on the scenario they plan for. In the 80’s Mel Tappan, Kurt Saxon, Howard Ruff were all leaders in the survivalist movement. Mel Tappan was the editor for the newsletter Personal Survival. Tappan advocated relocation to survival retreats in lightly populated regions and stood as an influential leader in the survivalist movement. Kurt Saxon was an American writer, radio host, survivalist, and author of The Poor Man's James Bond (1972) The Poor Man's James Bond, a series on improvised weapons and munitions. Howard Ruff was the author of Famine and Survival in America (1974) Famine and Survival in America , How to Prosper During the Coming Bad Years (1979) How to Prosper During the Coming Bad Years, Survive and Win in the Inflationary Eighties (1981) Survive and Win in the Inflationary Eighties, Making Money (1984) Making Money, and other books that helped add fuel to the flame in the 80’s. 

Survivalism is clear evidence of fantasy blurring in with reality. It is obvious that people looked to realistic dystopias and let this bleed into their reality. People would create communities that were built to survive in the case of economic or social downfall and although it is fine to prepare and think ahead, it is a totally different thing to build a bunker underneath your house. 

Sexual Deviance  

Sexual obsession throughout the 80’s is described as the increased relevance in media of sexual deviance toward children (molestation). In the 80’s many people such as Sigmund Freud and Roseanne Barr played important roles in the increased attention that sexual deviance received. Sigmund Freud believed that sexual deviance is an expression of the unresolved problems that happened in early development. In his work “Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality,” (1905) Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality Video Freud explored sexual perversions and discusses how sexual deviance can both result in sexual aim and sexual object. Roseanne Barr was an icon in that she accused her father of sexual abuse publicly after catching him molesting her daughter. This public accusation led to the media creating some numbers to show the wide spread uprising of sexual deviance toward children. Likewise, Barr stated that she hadn't realized she'd been molested as a child due to repressed memories she famously went on to say this on the Sally Jessy Raphael Show Roseanne Barr on the Sally Jessy Raphael Show. 

The 80’s gave rise to publicity of sexual deviance and with people mentioned above many wondered if they had repressed memories that they aren't aware of. This new fear increasingly gave rise to looking toward hypnosis and other therapeutic practices to uncover their memories. This allowed, what is considered, fantastical thinking to make its way into daily lives as a solution to their hysteria instead of hard factual evidence. 

Satanic panic

The satanic panic in the 80’s was increasingly influenced by media on murders and rising of cults. People like Michelle Pazder, Bennett Braun, and Richard Ramerez helped to aid the falsities in that was the satanic panic. Michelle Pazder and her husband Lawrance Pazder co-wrote “Michelle Remembers” (1980) Michelle Remembers . This book relied on the discredited practice of recovered-memory therapy. In the book, Michelle Pazder claims about Satanic ritual abuse that she experienced. However, despite the book being made out to be fact, no evidence was found. Bennet Braun was known in the field of recovered memory therapy. Braun was featured in news articles and television specials promoting the unfounded theory of Satanic ritual abuse. This resulted in his license to practice medicine being revoked twice. Similarly Richard Ramirez, also known as the Night Stalker, claimed to be possessed by the devil when going through the actions of his violent murders liewise that he is evil Richard Ramirez: Conversation.

The fixation on the satanic panic and the influenced widespread media dedicated toward stopping satanism displays how media puts fear into society and with fear comes hysteria. Media fed on this hysteria and had planted a seed into peoples heads that satan walked among us and influenced people to make loud music, kill people, and hurt others 1980s News, Satanic Panic. Satan is then used as an excuse for the fantasies that people create in their heads. 

It is unfortunate that the 80’s brought a rise to such hysteria based on things that have always been around. Regardless of how much they are talked about or not. The 80’s fueled societal paranoia and upcoming warnings of crisis. In FantasyLand, by Kurt Anderson, he addresses the hysteria and the actions of many of the people mentioned above. He states many times that the 80’s revealed the blending of fantasy and reality among society using increased media and the uprising of therapeutic practices (that have since been discredited) as evidence of such. Kurt Anderson further explains how the 80’s set the stage for people putting belief and feelings over factual evidence. With this in mind, the nation has never really managed to get away from these things. Nowadays, media is constantly covering bad events that may lead to widespread hysteria. In the world, there will always be bad things but having news tell us how to feel or think about said events is only enabling fantastical thinking as a whole. 

With the way that things continued to unfold, how is it that we managed to get by without addressing the stress that the media put on society and further influenced hysteria? All over the country, media and broadcasting stations drew attention to all the bad in the world and yet we are still here. What do you think that says about our society?