This is a very good short movie about how mind control works. It's based on a true story of a high school teacher that started his own cultish student organization modeled after the Nazis. It's very easy to see the parallels with JWs. It's an excellent way of seeing how mind control works. Of course, the movie is a little cheesy and isn't particularly well acted. It was part of ABC's After School Special series that ran on U.S. television years ago. I saw this movie years after it originally ran when I was in school. It made an impact on me, but I never made the connection with the JW religion. The similarities are obvious to me now.
The Wave: A short movie about mind control
by neverendingjourney 9 Replies latest jw friends
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Mysterious
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wave_(book)
It's based on the book by Tood Strasser. A very interesting read. I think it may have been required reading in school or at the very least it was in our class library. I found it pretty fascinating when I was growing up, though I totally missed all the JW parallels.
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AlanF
When I saw this movie some years ago, the parallels with JWism were uncanny and almost scary.
AlanF
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Leolaia
The school where this happened, btw, is only two minutes away from my house on foot. I bike past it all the time on the way to the store.
Here is an article on it that appeared in the school newspaper:
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littlerockguy
It is based on actual events that happened in Palo Alto, CA in 1969. The story is required reading in German schools.
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neverendingjourney
There is a parallel with the JW religion to everything presented in the movie. The only exception I could see is physical violence against dissenters, but that's only because the government prohibits it. If not, I'm sure that would be used as well. They could probably find some justification for it in the Bible.
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neverendingjourney
Thanks for the article, Leolaia.
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The wanderer
Dear Journey:
Thank you for the reminder, I had seen this
movie more than 20 years ago and vaguely re-
member some of it.
It showed how easily a respected authority can
control or convince the masses (students)
by controlling their behavior.
Unfortunately, I was one of the individuals who
believed that such a thing "could not happen to
me."
Today, I use my own critical thinking skills to
prevent falling into that "group think" mode
again.
Thanks once again.
Respectfully,
The Wanderer -
Leolaia
More "third wave" stuff.
A notice in the school newspaper while it was happening:
An anti-"third wave" poster put up in Mr. Jones' classroom:
Another anti-"third wave" sign by the "Breakers":
An article about Jones the following year shows that he was still teaching a similar lesson:
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neverendingjourney
That's fascinating stuff. I once heard that Mr. Jones was fired by the school for his experiment. I wonder if there's any truth to that.
