People Still

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23275, 18 February 1939, Page 16 (Supplement)

People Still

Believe Anything

AT first I found it difficult to believe the story of the widespread panic in the United States that followed the recent broadcasting of a version of Mr. H. G. Wells' "War of the Worlds." and I still have no doubt 'that the ordinary American listener was as little panic-stricken by what he heard from his wireless set as was the ordinary English listener on the occasion of Father Ronald Knox's famous broadcast of a revolution in London.

Still, tens of thousands of credulous people did take Father Knox's burlesque seriously, and believed him when he calmly announced that the mob was now burning a Cabinet Minister alive in Trafalgar Square, even though he followed this with the announcement: "We are now taking you over to the Savoy Hotel for some dance music." "Gospel Truth"

They believed that ho was speaking gospel truth when he told them that the Houses of Parliament had been set on- fire and that the Clock Tower had come down in flames, even though this was accompanied by the statement that, as Big Ben was out of action, _ the 8.8.C. would that evening transmit the strokes of midnight to listeners from Uncle Caractacus' repeater. The 8.8.C. has often been criticised, but I doubt whether it has ever been more angrily criticised than on the day after Father Knox broadcast his parody. "Frightening women and children," growled elderly men whose own hair (or what was left of it) had stood on end as they listened. The Americans, perhaps, had a better excuse for their panic, as the announcement ofl tho invasion of America by Martians was. broadcast, not in tho manner of burlesque, but with terrifying and realistic details. Still, on© would think that human beings with even a glimmering of intelligence, on hearing of an invasion from Mars, however like a news bulletin the announcement sounded, would quickly realise that they were listening to fidtion. > Result of Panic Obviously, however, thousands of ordinarv people failed to do so. It was said that as a result of tho panic the New Jersey Telephone Exchange alone put through 100.000 calls above the usual number. Some people used to believe that, with the spread of scientific knowledge and scientific habits of mind, credulity would decline. But, so.-far, science seems to have made little difference. There has even been a revival bf credulity in our time. I am convinced that, "if an astrologer foretold the end of the world or the'return of tho Black Death to England in the near future, hundreds of thousands of people would be thrown into agonies of apprehension by his prophecy. Everybody old enough to recall tho Great War will remember the orgy of credulity that accompanied it. There was nothing too extravagant to believe. Russian troops had miraculously landed in England on their way to Belgium.

By ROBERT LYND, Noted English Essayist

Enemy soldiers wero deliberately cutting off the heads of Belgian children. Lord Haldane was a traitor. Maddest story of all, the Germans were boiling down the bodies of their dead in what was called a "corpse-factory" and using the product in the manufacture of munitions.. And it was not only the ignorant and uneducated who believed these things. Education, even scholarship, was _ in thoso days no preservative against credulity. Trusting Nature Credulity, looked at from one point of view, is a charming trait —the mark of an innocent and trusting nature. But how miserable at times are its consequences. Othello was a noble character, but tfs a result of being credulous he smothered Desdemona. The sufferings of the Jews in modern times may, I think, be largely attributed to the credulity of other people. You might imagine that no one but Herr Streicher could possibly believe in the fictitious monster he calls a Jew, but apparently he has found millions of fellow-believers. In Czarist Russia the minds of the populace were inflamed against the Jews bj r stories of the ritual murder of a Christian child.

In more recent years we have had the forged protocols of the Elders of Zion revealing a world-wide Jewish plot lor the destruction of civilisation. This ludicrously incredible fabrication is swallowed by many people as innocently as was the war-time story of the German "corpse-factories " It seems to me to be a duty, therefore, . as well as common sense, to be a little sceptical when one hears a story that takes the breath away. If we all did this—if wo took it for granted that at least half the stories we hear are falsehoods —we should be saved from, among other things, believing a great amount of scandal both about public men and about our acquaintances. Within Reason If everybody had followed this course, you would not have thousands of people in the last generation ready to believe that Gladstone was a hypocrite who, under the mask of religion, led a life of gross immorality. During Gladstone's lifetime, however, many people not only believed this story v but declared that they had proof of it. Unfortunately, wo believe scandal because we like to believe it. The will to believe is never stronger than when we hear a story that drags a great man down to the common level or below it. It gives some people pleasure even to hear scandal about Shakespeare.

I myself try to believe nothing that I hear about anybody until I have had proof of it. I don't believe half the stories that are told even about Stalin and Mussolini and Hitler.

I admit that it is possible to go too far in tho matter of incredulity. There are some people, for example, who, because many atrocity stories have been proved to be false, refuse to believe any atrocity stories at all. It is all very well to be incredulous, but ono should be incredulous within reason.