WEBVTT - Studies in Desperation 0:00:02.200 --> 0:00:05.080 This is the stuff of life. I'm your host, Julie Douglas, 0:00:05.080 --> 0:00:07.880 and in this episode we take a look at desperation 0:00:07.920 --> 0:00:11.360 through the lens of art, war, and of all things, 0:00:11.400 --> 0:00:15.000 a survey one that gives us insight into what keeps 0:00:15.040 --> 0:00:19.599 Americans up at night. If there is any truism, it's 0:00:19.640 --> 0:00:22.919 that art isn't about art, It's about everything else, but 0:00:23.000 --> 0:00:31.080 it uses the language of art. That's artist Connor Everts, 0:00:31.120 --> 0:00:35.440 whose nineteen sixty three lithographs Studies and Desperation take on 0:00:35.520 --> 0:00:39.559 the themes of loss, longing, and despair. We talked to 0:00:39.640 --> 0:00:44.320 curator Tom Norris about how everts prints are potent reminders 0:00:44.760 --> 0:00:48.080 that what ails us humans today has changed a little 0:00:48.200 --> 0:00:51.400 from nineteen sixty three, and it it may not be 0:00:51.479 --> 0:00:54.360 pretty to look at, but it's fair and it's a reality. 0:00:55.120 --> 0:00:58.880 The editor of Military History Now, Nathan Mallett, walks us 0:00:58.880 --> 0:01:01.960 through a few desperate times in history. They're sort of 0:01:02.040 --> 0:01:05.800 traditional way of fighting war suddenly was coming up short. 0:01:06.000 --> 0:01:08.360 So it was, you know, it was really let's get 0:01:08.360 --> 0:01:10.120 creative here and see if we can. You know what's 0:01:10.120 --> 0:01:13.640 gonna work, Let's try We'll try anything. And we talked 0:01:13.640 --> 0:01:16.360 to Dr ed Day from Chapman University about the two 0:01:16.440 --> 0:01:20.160 thousand and sixteen results of the Survey of American Fears 0:01:20.200 --> 0:01:23.640 and the story these fears paint about the current national mood. 0:01:24.200 --> 0:01:32.759 We are a very suspicious nation. But first a few 0:01:32.760 --> 0:01:38.480 other desperate times in history. In ninety three was a 0:01:39.760 --> 0:01:46.039 big year Ladies and Gentlemen, the Beatles, the year the 0:01:46.080 --> 0:01:51.080 first Beatles album came out. Dylan's second album, which had 0:01:51.120 --> 0:01:54.120 Blowing in the Wind, came out that year, UM, and 0:01:54.160 --> 0:01:56.400 it was also the year the Mona Lisa traveled to 0:01:56.440 --> 0:01:59.720 the National Gallery in d c Um. But at the 0:01:59.720 --> 0:02:03.720 same time, the Cuba Embargo was continuing, the Cold War 0:02:03.840 --> 0:02:07.560 was on, and um somewhat of a nuclear arms race 0:02:07.800 --> 0:02:11.040 was happening, and our involvement in the Vietnam War, the 0:02:11.120 --> 0:02:14.240 civil rights movement, and then at the end of nineteen 0:02:14.680 --> 0:02:18.760 three the assassination of JFK. Ryan Guide in our newsroom. 0:02:18.919 --> 0:02:21.120 There has been an attempt, as perhaps you know now, 0:02:21.160 --> 0:02:23.680 on the life of President of kendidate. He was wounded 0:02:23.919 --> 0:02:27.480 in an automobile driving from Bela Airport. So there were 0:02:27.600 --> 0:02:32.679 there was this sort of a transition, a duality of 0:02:32.800 --> 0:02:37.800 sorts going happening. In nineteen sixty three that's curatorial associate 0:02:37.880 --> 0:02:42.000 Tom Norris at Norton Simon Museum, which exhibited Studies and Desperation, 0:02:42.360 --> 0:02:45.440 a suite by the late artist Connor Everts, honoring the 0:02:45.560 --> 0:02:51.240 fiftieth anniversary of nine lithographs Everts created in nineteen sixty three, 0:02:51.480 --> 0:02:53.920 the year that ushered in a sea change for the 0:02:54.000 --> 0:02:58.120 United States. In a two thousand three interview, Everts reflected 0:02:58.280 --> 0:03:01.720 on his Studies and Desperation series, and what he said was, 0:03:01.840 --> 0:03:04.160 I was thinking about the state of the world and 0:03:04.200 --> 0:03:07.079 the view of the world from the womb. What if 0:03:07.120 --> 0:03:10.000 someone looked out from the womb and decided not to 0:03:10.040 --> 0:03:16.079 be born until it was a better world? To capture 0:03:16.160 --> 0:03:20.320 the unraveling of society. The first lithograph depicts two figures, 0:03:20.680 --> 0:03:26.080 at first entwined, but as the series progresses unraveling and 0:03:26.160 --> 0:03:31.480 breaking down, and in the end they sort of find 0:03:31.520 --> 0:03:38.280 themselves in this circular sort of womb like feature, and 0:03:38.560 --> 0:03:45.280 there's bones and teeth and and phalluses and and fingers, 0:03:46.320 --> 0:03:52.440 and it's just kind of a jumble of um of parts, 0:03:52.520 --> 0:03:56.440 so to speak. And it brings it back to his 0:03:56.600 --> 0:03:59.960 quote about wanting to sort of go back into the 0:04:00.040 --> 0:04:03.840 womb in some way. Waiting it out until the world 0:04:03.920 --> 0:04:09.840 is a better place. With time and distance, it's easy 0:04:09.880 --> 0:04:14.120 to forget just how jarring John F. Kennedy's assassination was, 0:04:14.840 --> 0:04:18.719 Just how much Americans reeled in response to the cutting 0:04:18.720 --> 0:04:22.080 down of someone who represented all the ideals of a 0:04:22.120 --> 0:04:26.320 democracy that, in theory, should have prevented such a tragedy 0:04:26.360 --> 0:04:30.680 from happening in the first place, and by extension, would 0:04:30.760 --> 0:04:33.160 keep all sorts of random acts of violence at bay 0:04:33.200 --> 0:04:37.880 for everyone else. The assassination tore a hole in reality 0:04:37.960 --> 0:04:42.479 and efforts peered through it. It's the breaking down of 0:04:42.560 --> 0:04:47.760 these forms, these bodies is somewhat of an allegory for 0:04:48.080 --> 0:04:51.680 just however, it's his feeling the world is breaking down, 0:04:52.160 --> 0:04:56.040 with everything going on in the world around him, was 0:04:56.839 --> 0:05:00.160 sort of dissolving in his eyes, something that we can 0:05:00.200 --> 0:05:05.880 all relate to. Studies, I think would point to the 0:05:05.920 --> 0:05:11.880 idea that we're all finding our way and figuring it out. 0:05:12.240 --> 0:05:15.720 No one knows the correct path, and we're all studying 0:05:15.800 --> 0:05:19.479 to try and find that. One path to finding our 0:05:19.520 --> 0:05:23.440 way is to examine our past, something history professor and 0:05:23.640 --> 0:05:27.560 editor Nathan Mallett does on his site Military History. Now. 0:05:28.680 --> 0:05:31.120 There's so much of military history when you read it 0:05:31.160 --> 0:05:34.920 is about you know, this well known general in this 0:05:35.040 --> 0:05:38.000 well known battle, and you know or this well known 0:05:38.400 --> 0:05:42.320 you know, tank or airplane or something. Everyone knows that stuff. 0:05:42.680 --> 0:05:46.480 These are the things that people might have missed. And 0:05:46.520 --> 0:05:48.520 that's really the objective of this. Here's some things you 0:05:48.640 --> 0:05:51.200 never really thought of before. Here's the story you know 0:05:51.360 --> 0:05:54.040 you've never encountered, or kind of the footnotes do it 0:05:54.279 --> 0:06:00.240 and some of them are just really intriguing. Once story, 0:06:00.240 --> 0:06:05.400 in particular is what's known as the Business Plot. In November, 0:06:06.920 --> 0:06:10.799 the following rather chilling article appeared in the New York Times. 0:06:11.320 --> 0:06:14.640 It concerns the discovery of a plan coup that could 0:06:14.640 --> 0:06:18.440 have altered the course of American history, yet today hardly 0:06:18.480 --> 0:06:26.960 anyone knows anything about it. In the Military History Now 0:06:27.120 --> 0:06:31.279 article the Business Plot did American billionaire's plan a fascist coup? 0:06:31.800 --> 0:06:35.520 Nathan writes about wealthy Wall streeters, in corporate big wigs 0:06:35.920 --> 0:06:38.880 the one per centers of their time. They were worried 0:06:38.920 --> 0:06:42.719 about the victory of Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt. They felt 0:06:42.839 --> 0:06:47.440 his New Deal programs would usher in communism. The idea 0:06:47.520 --> 0:06:50.760 of the Business Plot was to overthrow FDR and install 0:06:50.839 --> 0:06:54.840 as Nathan described in his article quote an ultra nationalist 0:06:55.200 --> 0:07:00.560 and business friendly regime modeled after Lussolini's Italy plot of 0:07:00.600 --> 0:07:04.520 Wall Street interest to overthrow President Roosevelt and establish a 0:07:04.560 --> 0:07:08.080 fascist dictatorship backed by a private army. You have half 0:07:08.080 --> 0:07:11.520 a million ex soldiers and others appeared before the House 0:07:11.560 --> 0:07:16.200 of Representatives Committee on Unamerican Activities, which began hearings on 0:07:16.240 --> 0:07:23.840 the charges. Fast forward eighty years later to the year 0:07:23.880 --> 0:07:27.120 two thousand and twelve, right after the reelection of Barack Obama, 0:07:27.520 --> 0:07:31.320 similar sentiments were brewing about Obama ushering in an era 0:07:31.400 --> 0:07:34.400 of communism with a loss of liberties to follow, and 0:07:34.440 --> 0:07:37.720 one of today's most famous one per centers tweeted, quote, 0:07:37.760 --> 0:07:40.960 we can't let this happen. We should march on Washington 0:07:41.080 --> 0:07:45.360 and stop this travesty, and we should have a revolution 0:07:45.480 --> 0:07:48.520 in this country. The author of the two thousand and 0:07:48.520 --> 0:07:52.720 twelve tweets Donald Trump, any chance we have the sort 0:07:52.720 --> 0:07:55.880 of shine delight on something that's a little different that 0:07:55.960 --> 0:07:58.400 you might have missed, and also if we can link 0:07:58.440 --> 0:08:02.120 it to um, to thing that's happening currently. Why is 0:08:02.160 --> 0:08:04.600 this important, Why does this story matter, and why does 0:08:04.600 --> 0:08:10.640 the story matter? Now? As we know saber rattling can 0:08:10.680 --> 0:08:15.800 become concrete policy, and concrete policy based on desperation tends 0:08:15.880 --> 0:08:21.080 to fail. Like one infamous US military conflict, the Vietnam War, 0:08:21.720 --> 0:08:26.720 other types of sort of unconventional counterinsurgency tactics being used 0:08:26.720 --> 0:08:29.440 in Vietnam would be uh. I would say that the 0:08:29.480 --> 0:08:32.560 efforts to wipe out or knock out the ho Chi 0:08:32.679 --> 0:08:36.559 Min Trail. Nathan's referring to a specific point in the 0:08:36.600 --> 0:08:39.120 Vietnam War when the US tried to close down a 0:08:39.240 --> 0:08:43.160 main artery of supplies and munitions, the Ho Chi Min Trail. 0:08:43.640 --> 0:08:47.560 This north south running route was of such tactical importance 0:08:47.600 --> 0:08:50.920 that from seven to nineteen seventy two, the US military 0:08:51.080 --> 0:08:55.480 ran a secret weather manipulation program called Operation Popeye, meant 0:08:55.559 --> 0:08:58.480 to extend the monsoon season and flood the ho Chi 0:08:58.600 --> 0:09:02.679 Min Trail by seating class silver iodide and lead iodide 0:09:03.040 --> 0:09:08.160 inducing rainfall. And that is just one of several extreme 0:09:08.240 --> 0:09:11.520 attempts to move the needle of war to wipe out 0:09:11.559 --> 0:09:16.679 the trail itself. Um, they came up with some interesting ideas. Uh. 0:09:17.720 --> 0:09:20.360 They were very effective, but they were interesting. One of 0:09:20.360 --> 0:09:25.280 them was to drop industrial strength soap flakes onto the 0:09:25.320 --> 0:09:28.760 ho Chiman Trail during the rainy season, so that the 0:09:28.800 --> 0:09:31.280 soap would interact with the water and then foam up 0:09:31.760 --> 0:09:36.240 and it would literally wash the trail away, or would 0:09:36.240 --> 0:09:38.000 make it sort of a very sort of a soupy, 0:09:38.200 --> 0:09:46.680 sticky mass that nobody could pass through. Stories like this 0:09:46.760 --> 0:09:49.240 matter now, because you could argue we'd live in a 0:09:49.320 --> 0:09:53.600 time or hope is in short supply. There's handwringing over 0:09:53.640 --> 0:09:58.120 the economy of culture, over climate and resources. There's a 0:09:58.280 --> 0:10:02.240 palpable desperation, and we can learn from our past, and 0:10:02.280 --> 0:10:06.360 more importantly, we can study our present. And one of 0:10:06.400 --> 0:10:09.720 the ways to do that is to examine the underlying 0:10:09.840 --> 0:10:24.200 fears that drive our thoughts and actions. In two thousand 0:10:24.200 --> 0:10:27.240 and fourteen, I interviewed Dr ed Day of Chapman University 0:10:27.320 --> 0:10:30.920 about Wave one of the survey they had just conducted, 0:10:31.360 --> 0:10:34.840 the American Survey of Fears. I asked him what his 0:10:34.920 --> 0:10:40.080 fear was. I am absolutely petrified of heights. Put me 0:10:40.120 --> 0:10:42.360 on one of those swinging foot bridges and I get 0:10:42.440 --> 0:10:46.000 vertigo immediately, and there's no there's no rationale behind that. 0:10:46.920 --> 0:10:48.840 I had a chance to follow up with Ed on 0:10:48.960 --> 0:10:52.080 what is now Wave three of the study, released in 0:10:52.120 --> 0:10:56.440 October of and I asked him if his own fears 0:10:56.440 --> 0:10:59.760 have changed since two thousand and fourteen. Now, when I 0:10:59.800 --> 0:11:04.880 look good things like the how people react to conspiracy theories, um, 0:11:05.040 --> 0:11:08.200 how suspicious they are of a government that they themselves elected, 0:11:08.960 --> 0:11:16.160 I worry about the state of democracy. We'll get to 0:11:16.200 --> 0:11:18.600 the conspiracy theories in a minute, which, by the way, 0:11:18.720 --> 0:11:21.559 is a new and very important data point to the survey. 0:11:21.600 --> 0:11:25.960 But first a quick explanation of how the survey works. First, 0:11:26.080 --> 0:11:29.880 it's a weighted random sample of the American population over 0:11:29.920 --> 0:11:33.480 the age of eighteen. We're talking about people of all 0:11:33.640 --> 0:11:36.920 walks of life. This is something that appeals to science geeks. 0:11:36.960 --> 0:11:40.080 I don't know if it appeals to anyone else. Um. 0:11:40.120 --> 0:11:45.120 But when we did the original survey, um as we 0:11:45.120 --> 0:11:47.440 were piloting ideas, as we were doing sort of more 0:11:47.520 --> 0:11:50.560 qualitative textual interviews to find out what people would be 0:11:50.600 --> 0:11:52.800 afraid of and what we should be putting on the survey. 0:11:53.320 --> 0:11:57.479 We we used the natural language that people used, UM 0:11:57.559 --> 0:11:59.920 and and that really boiled down to some things were few. 0:12:00.000 --> 0:12:04.120 It's like, uh, you know, crime related stuff, things where 0:12:04.120 --> 0:12:06.840 people said they weren't afraid, but they were concerned, or 0:12:06.920 --> 0:12:10.160 they were worried, so we used that language in the question. 0:12:10.240 --> 0:12:12.040 We had a bunch of questions about what are you 0:12:12.040 --> 0:12:14.360 you know, are you afraid of this? Other questions would 0:12:14.360 --> 0:12:16.920 that are you concerned of this? Other questions which said 0:12:16.960 --> 0:12:19.520 are you worried about this? And we thought that gave 0:12:19.600 --> 0:12:21.959 us our best initial shot. But at the same time, 0:12:22.000 --> 0:12:25.800 we couldn't directly compare questions where we asked are you 0:12:25.840 --> 0:12:30.600 afraid with questions where we asked are you concerned? Um 0:12:30.640 --> 0:12:33.160 and And starting with Wave two, we said, okay, we've 0:12:33.160 --> 0:12:36.520 got that snapshot with the natural language. Now let's rephrase 0:12:36.559 --> 0:12:40.480 the questions so we're asking how afraid are you of everything? 0:12:40.520 --> 0:12:47.920 And then we can do direct comparison. In two thousand 0:12:47.960 --> 0:12:51.640 and fourteen, the top five years were number one walking 0:12:51.679 --> 0:12:55.160 alone at night to becoming a victim of identity theft, 0:12:55.480 --> 0:12:59.920 three safety on the internet for mass shootings, and five 0:13:00.040 --> 0:13:06.439 five public speaking. In contrast, Top five is fully stocked 0:13:06.480 --> 0:13:10.720 with a number of despair fueled fears. The first is 0:13:10.800 --> 0:13:15.720 government corruption, the second, terrorist attacks, three not having enough 0:13:15.720 --> 0:13:22.359 money for general terrorism, in five restriction on firearms and ammunition. 0:13:23.400 --> 0:13:29.960 This feels a little paranoid and a little desperate. I 0:13:30.000 --> 0:13:32.280 do think You're right that it reflects a sort of 0:13:32.280 --> 0:13:35.680 of desperation among people. And yes, I think it's definitely 0:13:35.760 --> 0:13:40.400 media driven um but concerned with corruption officials popping up 0:13:40.400 --> 0:13:44.280 in that's right when the primary season, you know, we 0:13:44.600 --> 0:13:46.280 do the survey in the spring. It was right when 0:13:46.280 --> 0:13:49.040 the primary season was cranking up, and then we did 0:13:49.880 --> 0:13:53.160 it was in full swing, and you basically had our 0:13:53.240 --> 0:13:57.760 national leaders telling our population that our government is corrupt 0:13:57.800 --> 0:14:00.520 and no good. Probably not a surprise that Americans have 0:14:00.559 --> 0:14:09.080 believed them. One of the starkest examples of this is 0:14:09.120 --> 0:14:12.360 the number ten fear on this survey. It was not 0:14:12.480 --> 0:14:15.680 the Affordable Care Act that wrote number ten, It was Obamacare. 0:14:15.760 --> 0:14:19.200 We asked the question about Obamacare. People respond differently to 0:14:19.240 --> 0:14:22.240 when you ask them about the Affordable Care Act and 0:14:22.240 --> 0:14:24.920 when you ask them about Obamacare, they don't realize that 0:14:24.960 --> 0:14:27.560 they are the same thing. And that's where you can 0:14:27.600 --> 0:14:30.680 really see the media effect. As Obamacare, you know, that 0:14:30.840 --> 0:14:33.720 term being a pejorative term that was applied across many 0:14:33.800 --> 0:14:36.880 media that has affected people, and so if you ask 0:14:36.960 --> 0:14:39.760 them about that term, you will see that they're more 0:14:39.760 --> 0:14:41.880 afraid of it than they would be about the Affordable 0:14:41.920 --> 0:14:45.280 Care Act. Even though that's the exact same thing, And 0:14:45.360 --> 0:14:49.840 in January broadcast of Jimmy Kimmel Live on the Street, 0:14:49.880 --> 0:14:53.960 interviews illustrate that many people are still confused or misinformed 0:14:54.280 --> 0:14:57.280 about the a c A. We decided to ask this 0:14:57.400 --> 0:15:00.240 question again to see if Americans have learned any thing 0:15:00.280 --> 0:15:03.760 over the last three years. And well, let's see if 0:15:03.800 --> 0:15:07.000 we have. We're talking to people about healthcare today. Do 0:15:07.040 --> 0:15:12.200 you support Obamacare or the Affordable Care Act Affordable Care Act? 0:15:12.360 --> 0:15:15.560 And why is that? Well, I mean, I'm not the 0:15:15.600 --> 0:15:19.200 biggest fan of Obama, so I don't support him in 0:15:20.040 --> 0:15:22.600 the Obama things that he's got going on him. I'm 0:15:22.600 --> 0:15:26.960 actually really excited for President elect Donald Trump's tom right, 0:15:27.040 --> 0:15:29.160 So you don't like anyth Obama does, and you prefer 0:15:29.200 --> 0:15:32.800 the Affordable Care Act? Absolutely? Do you support Obamacare or 0:15:32.840 --> 0:15:36.520 the Affordable Care Act? I support Obamacare. So if you 0:15:36.600 --> 0:15:38.320 were a Senator and you could vote today, you would 0:15:38.400 --> 0:15:41.240 vote to keep Obamacare instead of the Affordable Care Act. Yes. 0:15:41.920 --> 0:15:45.000 Do you support Obamacare or the Affordable Care Act? I 0:15:45.080 --> 0:15:48.720 guess affordabacare Affordable Care Act? And why do you prefer 0:15:48.760 --> 0:15:51.560 the Affordable Care Act over Obamacare? I'm not really sure. 0:15:52.320 --> 0:15:55.040 My girlfriend that supports Trump, so I go with whatever 0:15:55.080 --> 0:15:58.160 she goes, whatever she says. What is the main difference 0:15:58.200 --> 0:16:02.800 between Obamacare and the affordable when is you you you pay, 0:16:03.280 --> 0:16:12.760 and then the other one is Obama pays. The survey 0:16:12.800 --> 0:16:15.840 of American fears bears out consequences of this kind of 0:16:16.160 --> 0:16:20.320 half baked knowledge being flouted is fact. And this is 0:16:20.360 --> 0:16:23.400 where the survey on conspiracy theories comes in. We asked 0:16:23.440 --> 0:16:29.120 about what we thought were the nine most common conspiracies, 0:16:29.160 --> 0:16:31.880 you know, and we just asked whether people believe the 0:16:31.920 --> 0:16:37.200 government was concealing information about's well in order nine eleven, 0:16:37.560 --> 0:16:41.880 the jfk assassination, alien encounters, global warming, plans for a 0:16:41.920 --> 0:16:45.720 one world government, Obama's birth certificate, the origin of the 0:16:45.760 --> 0:16:50.720 age virus, the depth of Supreme Court justice scalia, because 0:16:50.800 --> 0:16:52.560 that had happened and been in the news a lot 0:16:52.560 --> 0:16:55.880 in the moon landing. What we found is that out 0:16:55.920 --> 0:17:00.600 of those nine, roughly three out of four Americains think 0:17:00.680 --> 0:17:04.280 the government's concealing information about some at least one of 0:17:04.359 --> 0:17:07.800 those things. One out of ten people believe the government's 0:17:07.920 --> 0:17:16.040 concealing information about all of that. We distrust the government 0:17:16.119 --> 0:17:19.280 and grasp for explanations about things that seem mystical or 0:17:19.400 --> 0:17:23.920 scary on some level is unfortunate, but the study reveals 0:17:23.960 --> 0:17:28.719 something far more treacherous about how paranoia and desperation affect 0:17:28.720 --> 0:17:35.800 our ability to think clearly. Example, one, almost of Americans 0:17:36.080 --> 0:17:40.320 believe that the government's concealing information about alien encounters. But 0:17:40.320 --> 0:17:41.800 then when we go back and we look at our 0:17:41.800 --> 0:17:45.600 paranormal belief questions, we see that, uh, it's only about 0:17:46.760 --> 0:17:50.439 of people that believe aliens have recently visited the earth. 0:17:51.080 --> 0:17:54.679 So people are more you know, they're more willing to 0:17:54.760 --> 0:17:58.879 believe that the government is hiding information about aliens than 0:17:58.960 --> 0:18:02.640 actually believe lands have been here, And that to me 0:18:02.880 --> 0:18:06.119 really points to the level of dysfunction we now have 0:18:06.320 --> 0:18:09.760 as citizens versus our government, that that we believe they're 0:18:09.840 --> 0:18:13.200 hiding things about things that we don't believe actually happened. 0:18:13.880 --> 0:18:18.080 Here's another example. We wanted to know just how likely 0:18:18.119 --> 0:18:21.359 people are to believe in conspiracies period, So we also 0:18:21.400 --> 0:18:23.960 asked about one that doesn't exist that we made up. 0:18:24.000 --> 0:18:27.119 We called it the North Dakota Crash, and we said, 0:18:27.440 --> 0:18:30.680 you know, do you believe the government is hiding information 0:18:30.720 --> 0:18:33.720 about the North Dakota Crash? And we had almost one 0:18:33.760 --> 0:18:38.200 out of three saying that, yes, the government is hiding 0:18:38.280 --> 0:18:41.560 information about this thing that never happened. So it just 0:18:41.600 --> 0:18:45.360 shows that right now a huge part of the population 0:18:45.520 --> 0:18:48.760 is willing to believe anything that gets offered up as 0:18:48.800 --> 0:18:51.600 a conspiracy theory because we have that much distrust of 0:18:51.600 --> 0:18:54.840 our government. And if you think that this kind of 0:18:54.880 --> 0:18:59.720 paranoia isn't being exploited, think again. Counselor to the President 0:19:00.040 --> 0:19:04.359 in Conway yesterday used false information to defend the President's 0:19:04.359 --> 0:19:09.200 executive order on immigration. I bet there was very little coverage. 0:19:09.280 --> 0:19:11.679 I bet. I bet it's brand new information to people 0:19:12.160 --> 0:19:15.119 that President Obama had a six month ban on the 0:19:15.160 --> 0:19:19.040 Iraqi refugee program after two Iraqis came here to this country, 0:19:19.080 --> 0:19:22.359 were radicalized, and there were the master masterminds behind the 0:19:22.359 --> 0:19:24.280 Bowl and Green massacred, when most people don't know that 0:19:24.280 --> 0:19:30.600 because I didn't get covered. There is no Bowling Green massacre. 0:19:30.960 --> 0:19:33.879 What Kelling in Conway is tapping into is not just 0:19:34.000 --> 0:19:37.479 a distrust of our government, but a deep distrust of 0:19:37.480 --> 0:19:41.720 each other. If we asked about selected social groups together, 0:19:41.800 --> 0:19:44.879 the sense of where Muslims would fall into this distrust 0:19:44.920 --> 0:19:48.960 of the other. So we asked about, yeah, how trustful 0:19:49.000 --> 0:19:55.199 are you regarding strangers, Muslims, Atheists, people in general, police officers, 0:19:55.359 --> 0:19:58.320 and Christians, And it was in that order. Muslims were 0:19:58.359 --> 0:20:01.800 second only to strangers in terms of who Americans tend 0:20:01.800 --> 0:20:10.520 to distrust. When you're looking at islamophobia, I think you 0:20:10.560 --> 0:20:13.200 see a clear impact of the media. Because the fact 0:20:13.320 --> 0:20:17.760 is less than one percent of the US population is Muslim. 0:20:17.800 --> 0:20:20.679 They tend to be located in urban areas. When you 0:20:20.720 --> 0:20:25.200 look at how Islamophobia is distributed in America, you see 0:20:25.240 --> 0:20:27.560 that it's more like, you know, people who are more 0:20:27.600 --> 0:20:32.679 suspicious of muslim They're older, they're white, they're less educated, 0:20:33.080 --> 0:20:35.520 and their rural and these are the people who are 0:20:36.040 --> 0:20:40.480 least likely to have met a Musliment of their opinion 0:20:40.600 --> 0:20:43.520 is coming from media portrayals of them. People are willing 0:20:43.560 --> 0:20:46.040 to bite onto you know, this is another. This is 0:20:46.080 --> 0:20:48.719 another we don't know. They tend to be portrayed as 0:20:48.760 --> 0:20:57.640 people who are dangerous. They must be dangerous. You could say, 0:20:57.680 --> 0:21:00.600 this kind of deep distrust is being reflect did back 0:21:00.600 --> 0:21:05.600 to the public and amplified, particularly with a newly established 0:21:05.640 --> 0:21:10.560 immigrant crime hotline. President Trump set up the Voice hotline 0:21:10.560 --> 0:21:14.320 that is for victims of immigration crime Engagement here's what 0:21:14.400 --> 0:21:18.159 he said in his joint addressed to Congress, announcing voice 0:21:18.800 --> 0:21:23.000 and we must support the victims of crime. I have 0:21:23.119 --> 0:21:26.280 ordered the Department of Homeland Security to create an office 0:21:26.480 --> 0:21:32.400 to serve American victims. The office is called Voice Victims 0:21:32.440 --> 0:21:37.800 of Immigration Crime Engagement. We are providing a voice to 0:21:37.920 --> 0:21:41.440 those who have been ignored by a media and silenced 0:21:41.440 --> 0:21:50.840 by special interests. In the midst of all of this, 0:21:51.680 --> 0:21:54.600 Ed wants to remind you of something. Well. The first 0:21:54.680 --> 0:21:57.080 thing is, I'd like to reassure people you're living in 0:21:57.119 --> 0:22:00.040 the safest time in history, in the safest place, So 0:22:00.200 --> 0:22:03.359 take a deep breath. And I also remind people that 0:22:03.800 --> 0:22:07.040 levels of fear matter. A little bit of fear is good. 0:22:07.200 --> 0:22:10.160 It can motivate you. Too much fear and you freeze 0:22:10.200 --> 0:22:13.760 and you don't do anything. If people are failing powerless, 0:22:14.119 --> 0:22:23.639 use the power that you have. In his book Consolations, 0:22:23.680 --> 0:22:28.439 The Solace, Nourishment and Underlying Meaning of Everyday Words, poet 0:22:28.520 --> 0:22:33.720 David White writes about despair, the underlying condition for desperation. 0:22:34.760 --> 0:22:37.560 The antidote to despair, he writes, quote, is not to 0:22:37.600 --> 0:22:40.440 be found in the brave attempt to cheer ourselves up 0:22:40.440 --> 0:22:44.840 with happy abstracts, but in paying a profound and courageous 0:22:44.840 --> 0:22:48.320 attention to the body and the breath, independent of our 0:22:48.440 --> 0:22:52.480 imprisoning thoughts and stories, even strangely, in paying attention to 0:22:52.520 --> 0:22:56.040 despair itself and the way we hold it, and which 0:22:56.080 --> 0:23:00.320 we realize was never ours to own and to hold 0:23:00.640 --> 0:23:14.880 in the first place. The question then is can we 0:23:14.960 --> 0:23:18.360 allow despair to move through us without being warped by 0:23:18.359 --> 0:23:22.760 the paranoia inherent in it? And can we look past 0:23:22.800 --> 0:23:28.000 the grotesquery of our times and move forward? To find out, 0:23:28.040 --> 0:23:30.280 we'll need to take a trip through the haunted halls 0:23:30.280 --> 0:23:33.639 of our imaginations, and in the next episode we do 0:23:33.840 --> 0:23:37.320 just that, replicating one of the oldest stories we humans 0:23:37.320 --> 0:23:40.959 have been telling, the hero's journey. There's a lot of 0:23:41.000 --> 0:23:45.000 elements tied to going into a haunted house. In many ways, 0:23:45.040 --> 0:23:48.400 it's a rite of passage. It's the hero's journey, very 0:23:48.440 --> 0:23:52.040 primal um. There's something very exciting to go into a 0:23:52.080 --> 0:23:56.480 scary environment, to almost be struggling with the savage beast 0:23:56.520 --> 0:23:59.000 in a way, to have that adrenaline surge, but yet 0:23:59.040 --> 0:24:05.200 to know that you're safe. We'd like to thank Dr 0:24:05.320 --> 0:24:08.439 Ed Day from Chapman University for his insights into the 0:24:08.480 --> 0:24:11.760 American psyche, and we'd like to thank Nathan Mallett of 0:24:11.800 --> 0:24:15.720 Military History Now linking our past with our present. And 0:24:15.760 --> 0:24:19.239 finally thanks to Tom Norris at Norton Simon Museum for 0:24:19.359 --> 0:24:22.240 Walking is through the mind of an artist desperate to 0:24:22.320 --> 0:24:25.600 change the world. The Stuff of Life is written and 0:24:25.720 --> 0:24:28.760 executive produced by me Julie Douglas and co produced by 0:24:28.800 --> 0:24:33.000 Noel Brown. Editorial oversight is provided by contributing producer Dylan 0:24:33.040 --> 0:24:36.400 Fagan and Head of Production Jerry Rowland. This episode also 0:24:36.440 --> 0:24:40.240 featured music by Dylan Fagan, Tristan McNeil, Aaron Grubs, and 0:24:40.359 --> 0:24:43.480 Josh Boardman. You can find more of Josh's music at 0:24:43.480 --> 0:24:46.679 battle Tapes band dot com. Additional music is by the 0:24:46.720 --> 0:24:49.640 band Breathers. You can find more of their music at 0:24:49.680 --> 0:24:53.480 Breathers dot band camp. This episode also features the songs 0:24:53.920 --> 0:24:57.840 that Hopeful Future is All I've Ever Known, Stories About 0:24:57.880 --> 0:25:01.760 the World That Once Was, and Cylinder Eight. The songs 0:25:01.760 --> 0:25:04.520 are by Chris Zabrievsky and you can find more of 0:25:04.600 --> 0:25:08.280 his work at Chris Zabrievsky dot com. Find The Stuff 0:25:08.280 --> 0:25:10.840 of Life on Facebook and Twitter, and you can email 0:25:10.920 --> 0:25:14.040 us at the Stuff of Life at how staff works 0:25:14.080 --> 0:25:20.040 dot com, m