Commentary
Mass hysteria is the spontaneous manifestation of certain behaviors by many people. There are numerous historical examples. In another monastery, the nuns started biting each other. In 13th-century Germany, spontaneous dancing broke out and whole cities danced until they were exhausted. But perhaps the most famous mass hysteria was the Salem Witch Trials, where people caught in visions accused others of bewitching others.
But hysterical episodes are not only historical. They happened in modern times too. Remember the daycare panic of the 1980s? That’s when daycare workers were accused of horrific crimes against children, including satanic abuse. Many false accusers have spent years in prison. life was ruined. The strangest thing about that mass hysteria was that it spanned continents. It started in California, then moved to Canada, Europe and even New Zealand before burning out.
Clearly, those caught in mass hysteria don’t realize at the time that things aren’t as clear as they should be.
Are some of us still victims of self-induced mass hysteria?
For example, what should we understand about the claim that men who choose to live as women actually become women? It’s neither scientific nor factual. Females have XX chromosomes and males have XY chromosomes. I closed the case. But for others, men actually become women simply by saying they are women.
Or what about the strange reaction most Western countries have had to the COVID-19 pandemic?
For reasons that remain unclear, most Western countries have decided to imitate communist China’s lockdown strategy. This was a radical approach hitherto rejected by all Western scientists and emergency planners. The misery we see unfolding in China as they finally abandon it is absolute proof of that absurdity. doing. And some say we should do it again! Is this an example of mass hysteria?
And are the most extreme of today’s anti-fossil fuel indices caught up in some version of mass hysteria? I’m not talking about people who have serious concerns. I mean those who claim that by the day we invent fossil fuels, everyone must give up all fossil fuels. Will history judge this as hysteria?
But perhaps the strangest episode of ongoing mass hysteria is happening in Canada. It alleges that 215 Indigenous children were secretly murdered at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School and secretly buried at night with the forced help of children “around the age of six.”
If true, this would be the greatest crime in Canadian history. The very idea that the nun and priest running the school were responsible for the deaths of her 215 children and forced other children to bury their peers made no sense at all. For one thing, he had no historical record of a Kamloops Indigenous parent reporting a child missing after attending her IRS in Kamloops. But more importantly, there was absolutely no practical reason to believe that the nuns and priests who ran the school were the ghouls the accusations claimed.
But then strange accusations multiplied. Other indigenous leaders have spoken out, claiming that there are “thousands and tens of thousands” of such deliberately murdered and secretly buried students across the country. With the prime minister ordering flags at half-staff for months and hundreds of millions of dollars being pumped into the search for these phantom children, minister Mark Millar said no one dared question these bizarre claims. were called “ghouls”. ”
The country panicked. A new holiday was declared in honor of these “missing children” (who have never been missing).
However, there was no credible evidence to support these claims. The only information that could even be called loosely “scientific” was an embargo report by a junior archaeologist who detected 215 “soil disturbances” that could be graves. It seems much more likely that it is clay pipe from a septic tank.
We know that bizarre stories of clergy killing and secretly burying Indigenous children have received increasing attention since a deposed minister in the 1990s began spreading conspiracy theories. But how is it that ordinary, sensible Canadians seemed willing to accept these ridiculous and deeply anti-Catholic stories?
Will future historians view this bizarre episode as some kind of mass hysteria?
Views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of The Epoch Times.
Brian Giesbrecht is a former judge and senior fellow at the Frontier Center for Public Policy.