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Moral Panic

Moral Panic

When a group of humans become moved to act or react based on news / urban legends that are sent out by the Media then it is referred to as "Moral Panic". Have you ever found yourself being involved with Moral Panic?

For me I have taken the bate many times. Remember when AIDS first came out? What about when Mad Cow disease was found in beef? Even recently in my own country the chickens were dying and the media made such a big deal about it that not only I, but many others stopped eating it.

Panic Moral

I think that no person, no race, no religion, and no political alignment is immune from getting caught up in the "moral panic" of society from time to time. Media builds a perfect holder for the bait, and the feeding frenzy begins. My biggest one was actually years ago, at the beginning of the Gulf War. The local media reported that gasoline stations all over the country were raising oil in preparation for the up coming oil shortage. After waiting inline at one gas station then seeing another empty, I went home. The news now report no oil shortage, and only a few stations were taking advantage of people. So I got caught, but usually try to sniff these things out a put the in perspective first. But its really hard to ignore something that gets your goat.

Moral Panic History & Civil Business Politics

Don't talk to me about "moral panic" here in israel we have 5 of those every year anyway I got caught up in it when the goverment finally decided to evacuate(forcefully)
the settlements, I'm not sure if you heard about in the US, anyway the media started saying that some of the settlers might have fire-arms and this could rip the country in two and cause civil-war and in the end what happened is exactly what the goverment have predicted but back then I was really afraid of policeman and soldiers getting hurt of extremist vandalizing and protesting but I am very glad that didn't happen.

Panic Moral

I think the only moral panic I ever found myself caught up in was the gas shortages after the hurricanes. The only thing is, we really did have a gas shortage in this part of the country. It was horrible! The gas stations were having to put limits on how much one person could spend on gas to make sure there would be enough, so people were having to drive to several different gas stations to fill up their SUV's and vans. I definately bought gas as much as I could, without being rediculous about it. But the news would report that it would be a couple of weeks before we got anymore gas in, and people would go crazy. This kind of led to the gas shortage because people were getting an overabundance of gas, so when people like me who just needed to fill their car up regularly went to get gas, we had to wait forever for gas. I did make sure that my tank was constantly filled up because we did go through times where only one or two gas stations in town would have gas.

I think the stupidest, and I apologize if I offend anybody, moral panic I have ever seen was the Y2K scare. People were going around claiming the world was going to end and civilization as we knew it would be over. There were stories of people stocking up on water and bread and other necessities in bulk because they were scared of what would happen. That was one moral panic I most definately did not fall for.

Panic Moral

What is Y2K?

I normally don't get caught on things like those, maybe because I don't trust media very much.
Still there were two cases worth mentioning.

The first one didn't inspire any fear or panic to me, but I saw how the thing was spreading fast and in all directions, it was rather amusing to watch.
It all started from a short article in a newspaper about a monkey that was brought illegally in the country by a person who bought it in some tropical country. Of course, the monkey was a bearer of some horrible virus - that was the reason they did not want it to pass the border.
Anyway. Either it escaped the customs or somebody brought it in, now it is in the city, so - beware!
It was a obvious hoax and not even very inventive, so I just shrugged and forgot.

Still, in a couple of days, the radio and papers began telling something about people being bitten by "a green monkey" (so it got green here. I blame pollution) and suffering a lot. One even died, if I am not mistaken.

But somehow, there was somebody who obviously found a common language with the animal because the next article I read was about a sailor who drove red car (beware of sailors in red cars!) and had a habit of opening a car window when stopped at red lights. Of course, our old acquaintance of ours, the green monkey, jumped out of the window straight on the people who were crossing the street (surpriiiise!), bit them randomly, jumped back into the car and the infernal couple left (I bet the sailor was muahahahing).

I mean it was a BS in its very best, and I only surprised at how wide it got spread and how many people took it for real (judging from their letters in reply to all that delirium).

Then it ended as unexpectedly as it started. I think, maybe the person who started it, just did it on dare.


The second case is quite different. I was very close to get caught. It was that fall when several apartment buildings were blown up in Moscow and other cities. They blame terrorists on it, but really it still it not proven.

In any case, it was several days in a row, when large apartment houses just flew into the air, in different cities but the pattern was always the same: very early hour of the morning (like 3 - 5 AM), a powerful explosion that came from an underground area or simply from staircase, an explosive disguised as sacks with sugar. The most horrible detail was phone calls that some lodgers of those buildings received several hours before the explosion. Those who survived and got those calls told it went something like as in a horror movie, something like "get ready to die".

Well, the situation was nasty. There was no logic seen and you never knew who could be the next. Of course, the chance it would be your house was incredibly slim, but still it happened to somebody, so it made you feel nervous.

On TV they suggested that lodgers organized a 24/7 duty on their staircases, watching for all suspicious people and things left there, checking cellars and other places.
Probably one day they were especially insisting, because I sort of almost gave up to it and almost went out to suggest our neighbors to really do all this.

But then I went out. Looked around. Saw that no one cared, actually. People's attitude was like "(shrug) well, if it happens, - happens. You can't escape your fate.(shrug) You'll worry when it comes (shrug) relax (shrug)" And it's not like they were scared or depressed. They simply did not care. Just kept living their life and simply didn't accept this as a possibility.
So I felt as a panicking coward and just threw my fears out of my head.


Edited: Klausse on 24th Feb, 2006 - 3:08pm