Perspectives: Sam’s Perspective – What Have We Learned

It was 1938. Television was pretty much experimental. Telephones were connected by a wire to the wall. America was still recovering from the Great Depression. It was also a time of innocence in this country. In fact, in the Heartland, many people didn’t lock their doors at night. There was no reason. Real crime, according to the radio, was pretty much confined to the big cities.  Mobsters, liquor runners, numbers rackets, gang wars were what you read about in the crime tabloids at the barber shop. New York, Chicago, Philadelphia maybe, but never here.

Wait a minute, we did have some of that roaming around. Pretty Boy Floyd, Bonnie and Clyde, Baby Face Nelson,… bank robberies,… shoot outs. O.K. So maybe we did have crime here. But it was the big city action that seemed to get most of the attention. Sort of the early media’s way of saying “Hey, if you think its bad here, just take a look at what’s going on in the big towns.”   The magician’s standard trick. If you watch what’s happening over there, you won’t really see what’s going on right under your nose. Still, most people in these parts felt safe. There was a sort of unspoken trust, a bond between folks. Neighbors looked out for one another but were we ever gullible. Just about any flim flam artist with a charismatic style could roll in and sell just about anybody a bottle of snake oil. And by the time you discovered the snake oil didn’t cure you, your money and the guy that sold it to you had moved on to another town.

P. T. Barnum said it best, “There’s a sucker born every minute.” Boy, was he right. In fact, I’d be willing to bet that if you went back far enough you’d find cave men dragging around a sack of rocks and claiming they were “special” rocks. And if you slept on them you’d feel better. The cost?  Only two good furs and that spear you are carrying. But back to 1938. That was the year that ‘War Of The Worlds’ aired on the old Mercury Theater of the Air, on CBS. Written and  produced by Orson Welles, the show centered around a Martian invasion and was so well done, people all over the country and here at home thought it was real. So real, in fact, that in some cases there was panic and even a few suicides. Never mind that it aired on October 31 of that year,… or Halloween. Just about everybody missed that point. America was ripe for the picking and picked she was.

But are things different today? You be the judge. Today we have television selling all sorts of snake oil with feel good promises. It also sells half truths and outright lies designed to separate you from your money or to sway your vote. Additionally, what should be a great place to learn, the Internet has become a hot bed for false prophets. Same with social media. So,…  let me ask you the obvious question,… weren’t there lessons over the years? Haven’t we learned anything?   Only, it appears, that P. T. Barnum was right. There is a sucker born every minute. Be careful out there my friend,… hold on tight. The dark side is out in force.

And that’s my Perspective.