In the '80s, a good chunk of the Middle Class would say,Not to a middle class family in Iowa.
'What's Wicca?'
In the '80s, a good chunk of the Middle Class would say,Not to a middle class family in Iowa.
I was thinking more in the UK.Not to a middle class family in Iowa.
In the '80s, a good chunk of the Middle Class would say,
'What's Wicca?'
Not to a Evangelical. All that smells un-Lutheran of the Devil. And in the 90s a large part of the elder generation was still active Believers. When people say Europe is so secular, they forget it's a relatively recent thing, a result of a slow process.I suspect there's a difference between D&D and Wicca.
A process that started with Darwin. Also, while there may have been believers, I don't think they were as strong-feeling about it.Not to a Evangelical. All that smells un-Lutheran of the Devil. And in the 90s a large part of the elder generation was still active Believers. When people say Europe is so secular, they forget it's a relatively recent thing, a result of a slow process.
*Probably the main reason the Mounties investigated is BECAUSE they had a higher level of authority and ability so as to NOT increase the public concern. Local authorities have to answer to local authorities who as part of the local population are more susceptible to pointed local pressure where as an extra-local authority can ignore such pressure and not enter a feedback look which is how the 'panic' operated.
Oh there were a visible generational shift in Finland. I remember the outcry that my parent's generation didn't go to church, (and that some of my grandparents' generation stopped bothering with it), and as I said there were worries about kids being into Satanic stuff like Wicca in the early 90s. Funnily enough by the late 90s that all seem to be over. Regarding D&D it wasn't a thing in Finland, and still barely is, but that's for completely different reasons. It being only in English and it being NEERDY are the main reasons.A process that started with Darwin. Also, while there may have been believers, I don't think they were as strong-feeling about it.
The Satanic panic is a moral panic about alleged widespread Satanic ritual abuse which originated around the 1980s in the United States, peaking in the early 1990s, before waning as a result of scepticism of academics and law enforcement agencies who ultimately debunked the claims.[1][2][3] The phenomenon spread from the United States to other countries, including South Africa,[3][4][5] where it is still evident periodically.[6][7][8] South Africa was particularly associated with the Satanic panic because of the creation of the Occult Related Crimes Unit in 1992, described as the "world's only 'ritual murder' task force". According to anthropologist Annika Teppo, this was linked with powerful conservative Christian forces within the then-dominant white community in the last years of apartheid. Christian belief is a prerequisite to serve in the unit. The concern with the alleged presence of Satanism and occult practices has continued into the post-apartheid era.
Persuant to the discussion about the Panic spreading outside the USA and UK...
Obviously, apartheid SA was about as far removed from a secular, liberal political order as you can get. But elements of the Panic still survive to this day, according to that article.
Satanic Panic(South Africa)
Have a suicide blamed on D&D with parents taking TSR to court for civil damages. Judge finds in favor of the parents/family - at the very least the industry (and it's nascent descendants like Final Fantasy and Zelda) takes a major hit in the US market.
MSR wrote:
If such a verdict were to be rendered, I think what it would mostly do is entrench the opinions of people who were anti-DND to begin with. Pro-DNDers, as well as a good chunk of the fence-sitting or apathetic public, would just laugh it off as another ridiculous court decision wrought by conniving lawyers and dumbassed judges, like the McDonalds hot-coffee verdict.
But yeah, there might be a few erstwhile fence-sitters who would make the calculation that "Well, if a judge says it's true, it must be true". I don't know if there would be enough of them to have a serious impact on TSR's well-being.
Meanwhile in the UK, the nascent company Games Workshop keeps merrily chugging along...