We watched a film and booklet that was produced by the Office of Civil and Defense Mobilization in 1959 when the threat of nuclear attack was a real fear people had to worry about. The film/booklet outlines the steps in building your own fallout shelter in your own home. However, instead of seeing it as a real guide, we discussed its importance as an example of scare theater to make people think they’re in control of their situation, similar to the purpose of the TSA. From there, we went on to talk about how a lot of what the government does to “protect” its citizens, is more just meant to create a sense of protection that keeps Americans believing they have control, rather than actually moving towards a proper way of defense.
-Cole
