Tanganyika Laughter Epidemic

“On stage, we just want to generate hysteria. We don't care about looking cool or posing” - Adrian Edmondson

“Our country is now geared to an arms economy bred in an artificially induced psychosis of war hysteria and an incessant propaganda of fear” - Douglas Macarthur

I would like to talk today about Hysteria especially the Mass Hysteria that we buy into on a day-to-day basis. We could talk about different levels such as Susan Boyle to Swine Flu all of which have been generated from the one same source – The media.

If you are long time readers of my blog you will know that I do not engage and participate in the mass media and mass hysterical work of Newspapers, Magazines and gossip columns who all do there bit to generate an emotional response to a news item.

It is widely thought that if you engage someone emotionally they will be more likely to return to hear, read and surf your take on any topical subject that arises.

Yes, I can see the irony of writing this blog too.

So Mass Hysteria or other terms it is known by such as Herd Behaviour or bandwagon effect is most likely a primal throwback designed to protect our evolution.

We, unlike other species (although subjective, granted) have an intelligence to communicate with each other to warn of danger.


A Nice Parable to illustrate (albeit longwinded) my point
There are three cavemen in a field; two walk off to capture and take some tusks off a warthog as they look like good digging tools.

So let’s set the scene, and call these ancient cavemen Dave, Fred and Randy.

“Hey Randy, me and Fred are going to the woods as we have noticed an animal called a warthog who just happens to have tusks that would help us tremendously in digging out post holes to put up our new pergola” – Commented Dave

“Ok Dave, look after Fred as he is young and needs guidance from a wise caveman such as your. Would you mind awfully to be back for supper at 7pm as tonight we are having cous cous salad and it dries up something terrible if left?” – Lamented Randy

So the intrepid travellers made there way into the jungle to seek the warthog, two mighty warriors seeking their destiny. They were Dave the wise elder whose bravery was legendary and the young Fred who was strong as an Ox, but his sense is yet to come to fruition.

They tracked the warthog and by using strategies straight from the teachings of Sun Tzu (gained from a visit from Doctor Who in his Tardis, who accidentally left his DVD player behind) they flanked the animal and went in to kill him and collect there bounty.

At the crucial moment Dave went to pounce on the fearsome beast but tripped on a trailing piece of leopard skin cloth from his shoes and fell flat on his face.

The fall and the force of his landing frightened the warthog; so that he rose up on his short squat legs about turned and ran in the opposite direction.


There was silence, only after the sound of the warthogs coveted tusks had pierced through the abdomen of young Fred. Even with his strength, he was as fallible as all men born with human flesh that can so easily be broken.

As Dave regained his composure and re-tied his giant leopard skin shoelaces, he sat and cradled the dying Fred in his arms and vowed to him that he will talk about his braveness to all the others in his tribe.

Fred died cradled gently in Dave’s arms, which he then closed his eyes for the last time and kissed him gently on the forehead and said goodbye.

Dave rested Fred on the jungle floor in front of him and thought to himself

“Shit!”

The situation was not as straight forward as he had hoped, he was a well revered and wise man within his tribe so.

“Maybe an alternative story would be more fitting for Fred” thought Dave as the actual chain of event could prove embarrassing for him.

So David pondered this for a while, conscious of the time and the effort Randy was obviously putting in preparing his Cous Cous salad, an idea was struck.

The were some keys elements to the story that Dave needed to include such as people convincing, frightening enough so that no-one comes to the jungle and also could do some good in the long run.

The story was confirmed in Dave’s mind, he then buried Fred in a shallow grave as his supper time was approaching and he made his way back to the tribe to tell his story.

The sight of Dave stumbling from the jungle alone and with a look of fear and personal tragedy on his wise features caused all the tribe to stop what they were doing and run to assist there wise, strong elder.

Randy had been one of the first to see Dave stumbling from the jungle and quickly rushed to the scene. He was frantic as Fred was not with him.

Although Fred was the strong silent type, Randy had fallen for him and they were inseparable. They were in love and they naturally want just to exist like the fall and rise of the sun and moon. There love had to be suppressed due to the narrow thinking ways of the tribe.

Randy and Fred had often dreamed about moving to a secluded cave in the mountain, were the two of them could be together and they would raise quails.

Dave had reached the centre of the tribe’s communal area, out of breath and clearly distressed he was folded over hands on his knees head forward trying to gain his composure.

“Where’s Fred” Randy asked in a strained high pitched panicked voice

“Fred has been taken, he was taken by WITCHES” replied Dave to an astonished crowd who all gasped with the revelation

Dave explained further

“A group of witches approached us in the jungle, and they took Fred. They used there wicked magical powers to take all my strength from me. They wanted Fred for a mate”

“They said that if we ever went back into the jungle they would kill him, they let me go so that I can give you this message”

The tribe was outraged and all talked furiously between each other; there was tears and Mother’s taking there children and hiding them in the caves and covered by religious symbols.

Randy fell to his knees and started beating the bare earth; he was crushed as his lover and soul mate had been torn away from him. In an uncharacteristic show of strength and resolve he rose to his feet and climbed onto a nearby rock to address the tribe.

“I stand before you a broken Man; Fred was dear to me and to all of us. He dedicated he life to protecting us all with sensitivity, devotion and discipline. If this happened to anyone of us then Fred would be the first to go into the jungle to rescue him. We owe it to him and to all of our futures and safety to rescue him. Who is with me?”

A roar of approval and the tribe was united and committed to rescue Fred with the unlikely figure of Randy leading the vengeful mob who were all fully intent in dishing out justice to these witches. They made there way towards the jungle.

Dave was swept up in the euphoria and was asked to take them to the last known location of Fred.

“That did not go well” Dave thought

Dave led the mob through the jungle; careful to take them as far away from the freshly dug shallow grave of Fred.

“All this because of a Leopard skin shoe lace and my desire for a pergola” Dave chastised himself

They travelled for hours and rested in a clearing in the jungle to take on water and to speak with Dave so more.

Suddenly around 150 yards ahead a young girl approached the nearby stream, Randy noticed her and beckoned Dave to see him and asked.

“Was that one of the witches you sure?” Randy asked

“I am not sure, as witches can hide there true selves and live amongst us” Dave replied, almost instantly wishing he had not said a word

A small radicalised group from the mob were dispatched to capture the witch; the group were the self pro-claimed Guerrilla Unit of the outfit and the formed G-UNIT did not make mistakes.

They snatched the young girl; they asked her the whereabouts of Fred and she denied all knowledge so they silenced her and took her back to the tribe for judgement.

There was no doubt that the conscious of Dave was heavy but now the lie had escalated so much that revelation would certainly signal his own death by the mobs hands. He was not concentrating and followed the mob as they made there way back to there settlement, he was oblivious to the fact that they were heading in the same direction as to the final, albeit shallow resting place of Fred would be uncovered.

The area of the covered up crime was approaching, and by some cruel fate Randy signalled to the mob to rest on the very spot.

The sight of Fred’s corpse being pulled apart and feasted on by wild animals had done one thing. It had sealed the fate of the captured woman.

The rage within the tribe delivered the most cruel of deaths to the young girl, they burnt her alive and asked her to confess so her soul would be saved.

Over many years, mobs and smaller hunting parties have gone to the jungle and captured witches. It was apparent when anybody took ill or the crops failed then the presence of witches were blamed and even sought within their own tribe.
*************************************

The ending is how you can imagine. The picture you really have to paint yourselves and manifest your own Horror, my interjection cannot affect your fears any more successfully than your own subconscious.

So “Mass Hysteria’s de Jour” are as follows;

Swine Flu - This is originally the direct result of pigs being infected by Human Flu. So there is a wicked irony, when it is given back via an inter-species germ tag match.

I over heard a conversation on the bus the other day which was unintentionally flawed genius and wrong on every level.

I often listen to conversations, and liken this to being the third person in a crazy world, made up of poor reasoning and mass hysterical judgement.

I kid you not; this is verbatim between two students.

“All this swine flu happened for a reason you know” Person 1 said

“Really, what do you know about it?” came the reply from Person 2

“Well, you noticed that Muslim’s and Jew’s have not caught it?” Person 1 incorrectly stated

“Nah, really why do you think that is?” Person 2 said aghast

“Because it is an unclean animal and against our God, Pigs were poisoned by spiritual elders to kills all the infidels and anti-Semites” Person 1 stated, whilst proud of solving the mysteries of the universe

I think no comment can really be made after that.

Susan Boyle - I was watching Television the other day with a friend and a there was a clip of some woman singing on an advert. We paid it no mind and made no comment and carried on with the conversation.

Then suddenly Simon Cowell came on the television and lavished praise and made some powerful validating comments.

The person who was watching TV with me then responded,

“I agree she has the best voice I have ever heard. She was something special” They said

I did not comment, but thought that this person would not have made that validating statement unless Simon Cowell praised her.

Has any heard of the fable of the Emperors New Clothes?

Some other examples of Mass Hysteria - Taken from Wikipedia

Dancing mania was a social phenomenon that occurred primarily in mainland Europe between the 14th and 18th centuries; it involved groups of people, sometimes thousands at a time, who danced uncontrollably and bizarrely, seemingly possessed by the devil. Men, women, and children would dance through the streets of towns or cities, sometimes foaming at the mouth until they collapsed from fatigue.
One of the first major outbreaks was in Aachen, Germany, on June 24, 1374; the populace danced wildly through the streets, screaming of visions and hallucinations, and even continued to writhe and twist after they were too exhausted to stand.

Fan death is a South Korean urban legend which states that an electric fan, if left running overnight in a closed room, can cause the death (by suffocation, poisoning, or hypothermia) of those inside. Fans manufactured and sold in Korea are equipped with a timer switch that turns them off after a set number of minutes, which users are frequently urged to set when going to sleep with a fan on

The Tanganyika laughter epidemic of 1962 was an outbreak of mass hysteria, or mass psychogenic illness (MPI), rumored to have occurred in or near the village of Kashasha on the western coast of Lake Victoria in the modern nation of Tanzania near the border of Kenya.
It is possible that, at the start of the incident, a joke was told in a boarding school, and that this joke triggered a small group of students to start laughing. The laughter perpetuated itself, far transcending its original cause.

The Tanganyika laughter epidemic is sometimes understood as implying that thousands of people were continuously laughing for months. However this may not have been the case. Other reports tell that the epidemic consisted of occasional attacks of laughter among groups of people, occurring throughout the vicinity of the village of Kashasha at irregular intervals. According to reports, the laughter was incapacitating when it struck.
The school from which the epidemic sprang was shut down; the children and parents transmitted it to the surrounding area. Other schools, Kashasha itself, and another village, comprising thousands of people, were all affected to some degree Six to eighteen months after it started, the phenomenon died off. The following symptoms were reported on an equally massive scale as the reports of the laughter itself: pain, fainting, respiratory problems, rashes, and attacks of crying.

Mass Hysteria is still prevalent in our society but it is now managed in a way called Marketing, Media and Spin. A lot of you guys out there understand the Law of Attraction and there are a lot of people teaching it. There is always someone who has a new hidden message, new easier ways, new secrets, the hidden secret and the hidden secret easier way. This is marketing my friends plain and simple.



Everything that I have purchased in my pursuit, I could have got free. Every secret that was revealed was a re-packaged truth. There was one thing and one thing only that you should buy, and that is the energy and enthusiasm they deliver the truths.

The self development and motivational world is just like Disneyland! When you get off the ride you have to walk through them merchandising shop.


The moral of this blog is to think for yourselves, do not be part of the herd, and be the leader of your own independent mind. I want to help, motivate people and inspire people but financial gain is not my lead thought but part of my harmonic plan.

“This above all; to thine own self be true” - William Shakespeare