Sponsored Content
« Salon: Do You Think If You Had 22 Secret Emails on Your Computer, You'd Be Allowed to Walk Scot-Free? | Main | Merle Haggard, RIP »
April 06, 2016

A Panic Sweeps Across Indiana University as Ghostly Klansman Carrying a Whip Glides Across the Campus Grounds

From Ed Driscoll at Instapundit, as part of that site's helpful updates about which colleges you should under no circumstances send your children to.


The klansman in question was actually a priest wearing the traditional white robes, and the "whip" was probably his rosary beads.

The situation reminds me of the Great Fear that shook France just before the Revolution:

The "Great Fear" occurred from July 20 to August 5, 1789 in France at the start of the French Revolution. Rural unrest had been present in France since the worsening grain shortage of the spring, and the grain supplies were now guarded by local militias as bands of vagrants roamed the countryside. Rumors spread among the peasantry that nobles had hired these vagrants to prey on villages and protect the new harvest from the peasants.

In response, fearful peasants armed themselves in self-defense against the imaginary marauders by robbing the jail Bastille and attacked manor houses. Aristocratic property was ransacked, and documentation recording feudal obligations was destroyed. There were isolated incidents of violence against the aristocrats, but the peasants mostly wanted to destroy the records in which the feudal dues were recorded. Grain supplies were attacked and merchants suffered serious losses as peasants helped themselves to much needed supplies. The revolt spread across the country but gradually burned itself out as militias imposed law and order.

Simon Schama postulated that the Great Fear worked like this: A village heard rumors of vagrants and marauders abroad. They quickly grabbed their staffs and pikes and went out on the road searching for these brigands.

Far down the road, they saw an armed group of men shambling towards them.

They ran back to the village and told their fellow villagers to board up the houses and get ready for the siege by bandits.

But the bandits never came.

Because, in all likelihood, the armed men they had seen on the road was just the villagers of the next village down, who themselves had heard rumors of bandits pillaging the countryside, and had themselves gotten their weapons and went out to patrol for these boogeymen who did not exist.

Fearful, stupid people are afraid because they're fearful, and they're afraid particularly of everything because they're stupid and can't tell the difference between a klansman and a priest.

Of course, the trembling peasants of 1789 might have had a better excuse than today's Special Education Snowflakes do:

Historian Mary K. Matossian argued that one of the causes of the Great Fear was consumption of ergot, a hallucinogenic fungus. In years of good harvests, wheat with ergot was thrown away, but when the harvest was poor, the peasants could not afford to be so choosy

digg this
posted by Ace at 03:22 PM

| Access Comments




Recent Comments
Diogenes: "A former work location on a previous contract made ..."

TheJamesMadison, being witty and sophisticated with Ernst Lubitsch: "196 I need to rewatch The Magnificent Ambersons. T ..."

WinLinBSDAdmin: "I need to rewatch The Magnificent Ambersons. That ..."

Mike: "The Passion Of The Christ by Mel Gibson, drops mi ..."

Smell the Glove: "@53 Paul Newman and Strother Martin in Slapshot is ..."

Eromero: "190 Gentleman's Agreement was an emergency rewrite ..."

Yudhishthira's Dice: "Wasn't Kinski the perv whose daughters claimed he ..."

That Northern skulker: "I love the Exodus theme song. ..."

Way, Way Downriver [/i]: "[i]Gentleman's Agreement[/i] was an emergency rewr ..."

naturalfake: " "Bloody Hell" is a very good oddball black comed ..."

All Hail Eris, Sans-Culottes (except for the Book Thread): "Must've had a lot of CHinese money in this flick. ..."

Eromero: "The Passion Of The Christ by Mel Gibson, drops mi ..."

Recent Entries
Search


Polls! Polls! Polls!
Frequently Asked Questions
The (Almost) Complete Paul Anka Integrity Kick
Top Top Tens
Greatest Hitjobs

The Ace of Spades HQ Sex-for-Money Skankathon
A D&D Guide to the Democratic Candidates
Margaret Cho: Just Not Funny
More Margaret Cho Abuse
Margaret Cho: Still Not Funny
Iraqi Prisoner Claims He Was Raped... By Woman
Wonkette Announces "Morning Zoo" Format
John Kerry's "Plan" Causes Surrender of Moqtada al-Sadr's Militia
World Muslim Leaders Apologize for Nick Berg's Beheading
Michael Moore Goes on Lunchtime Manhattan Death-Spree
Milestone: Oliver Willis Posts 400th "Fake News Article" Referencing Britney Spears
Liberal Economists Rue a "New Decade of Greed"
Artificial Insouciance: Maureen Dowd's Word Processor Revolts Against Her Numbing Imbecility
Intelligence Officials Eye Blogs for Tips
They Done Found Us Out, Cletus: Intrepid Internet Detective Figures Out Our Master Plan
Shock: Josh Marshall Almost Mentions Sarin Discovery in Iraq
Leather-Clad Biker Freaks Terrorize Australian Town
When Clinton Was President, Torture Was Cool
What Wonkette Means When She Explains What Tina Brown Means
Wonkette's Stand-Up Act
Wankette HQ Gay-Rumors Du Jour
Here's What's Bugging Me: Goose and Slider
My Own Micah Wright Style Confession of Dishonesty
Outraged "Conservatives" React to the FMA
An On-Line Impression of Dennis Miller Having Sex with a Kodiak Bear
The Story the Rightwing Media Refuses to Report!
Our Lunch with David "Glengarry Glen Ross" Mamet
The House of Love: Paul Krugman
A Michael Moore Mystery (TM)
The Dowd-O-Matic!
Liberal Consistency and Other Myths
Kepler's Laws of Liberal Media Bias
John Kerry-- The Splunge! Candidate
"Divisive" Politics & "Attacks on Patriotism" (very long)
The Donkey ("The Raven" parody)
Powered by
Movable Type 2.64