fads always follow the same pattern. And if you are wise, you will pay attention to this pattern so you can more quickly spot the fad next time.
In the late Eighties and Nineties, the psychiatric profession became infatuated with “recovered memory”, which was conceived in the US but also captivated Europe, including Britain. Practitioners claimed that patients sexually abused as children would naturally repress any recollection of their suffering as too painful, but therapists could employ specialised techniques to retrieve these terrible experiences and so heal the patients’ trauma. As a profusion of books, articles and documentaries cultivated a larger cultural fascination, the recovered memory juggernaut resulted in countless adults “remembering” early childhood abuse, usually by parents. Patients would exhume recollections of having been subject to parental rape or oral sex when they were babies. Accusations followed. Families were torn apart.
Yes, just as I have been saying for years. THIS shows the model. Unfortunately,
Only from a distance does the sordid psychological dowsing look barmy.
But it happens over and over!
Within the astonishingly short time frame of 10 years, I count four real-life collective crazes: transgenderism, #MeToo, Covid lockdowns (which spawned sub-crazes over masks and vaccines), and Black Lives Matter. I also worry we’re already in the grip of social mania number five.
But there are markers. And you see them in all such fads, Here’s an incomplete list from me, along with the article:
- First and foremost, it never seems like a social mania at the time.
- It feeds off of resentment and it engenders human misery.
- It is aggressively enforced. Anyone who disagrees is a “heretic” that must be burned. Because it is rooted in the narcissism of its cheerleaders.
- There is some sort of priestly hierarchy.
- There’s rarely an identifiable point at which a mania is debunked (barring a world war or counterrevolution). Few will recant, much less apologise to the victims of their excesses. A funny amnesia sets in, as forgetfulness is more palatable than shame… Once manias die down, most people pretend they never believed these things to begin with.
There are indeed some signs of cultural/medical fads. You would be wise to take heed so as not to be taken in in the future…