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Philosopher John Doris (Cornell) calls my attention to this interesting piece about a high school teacher who, in 1967, turned his students into fascists over the course of five days, calling to mind the later and controversial Stanford Prison experiment conducted by psychology professor Philip Zimbardo. Do readers knokw anything about the high school case, beyond what is reported in the linked article?
There is extensive writing on the Ron Jones experiment. Here's an especially interesting piece: In 'The Wave,' ex-teacher Ron Jones looks back https://bit.ly/3bXiVqt Here's a website devoted to The Wave – THE WAVE – Official Site (Die Welle & The Third Wave resource) https://bit.ly/3bVPViQ (And, no, I hadn't heard of it either.)
I recall that in grade school that I read a fictionalized version of the highschool case. The book had been adapted as a cautionary tale for teenagers. It was insistent that it was based on real events (adds to the shock value!), but that book was probably sanitized a bit for children.
A quick search tells me the book was called "The Wave" (1981). Apparently it's been adapted to the screen a few times, most recently on Netflix in 2019. Clearly, the book was memorable enough. But I most remember the ending being an anticlimax, since the teacher just calls an assembly and tells the students it was all an experiment and that they should stop.
For those who like their history with a dash of humor, this topic made for a particularly entertaining episode (#399) of the comedy/American history podcast The Dollop.
We watched a early to mid-80s film adaptation of "The Wave" when I was in elementary school. It was my first real introduction to fascism and the notion that people can be easily coerced into anti-social, elitist behavior through propaganda, sloganeering, and some kind of banner to rally under. Sort of depressing to see that so many Americans did not see a movie like this to teach them the evils of groupthink when they were children too!
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