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8. A Satanic Panic

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Pranksters
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183ASatanic PanicShadow secret societies and Satanism have been intertwined in the right-wing imagination throughout the modern era. This conspiratorial worldview helped American evangelicals make sense of the tumultu-ous 1960s, which witnessed several radical breaks from tradition. Many people in the youth movement came to believe that Western rational-ism was dehumanizing, and they expressed their rebellion by retreating into Eastern religions, mysticism, and paganism. Social historian Theo-dore Roszak points out that there is nothing new about the existence of Theosophists, Spiritualists, Satanists, and other kinds occultists. “What is new,” he wrote in the late 1960s, “is that a radical rejection of science and technological values should appear so close to the center of society, rather than the negligible margins.” Hippies sent the far right into hys-terics, and by the decade’s end Charles Manson became a cautionary symbol of the movement’s perceived immorality. The California press often portrayed him as the head of a satanic cult, and reported details about the Manson Family’s killing spree provided the grist for many a far-fetched fantasy. Regional disruptions such as the Watts riots, Berke-ley campus antiwar protests, and San Francisco’s “Summer of Love” also put the fear of God—or Satan—in conservative Christians.18
© 2020 New York University Press, New York, USA

183ASatanic PanicShadow secret societies and Satanism have been intertwined in the right-wing imagination throughout the modern era. This conspiratorial worldview helped American evangelicals make sense of the tumultu-ous 1960s, which witnessed several radical breaks from tradition. Many people in the youth movement came to believe that Western rational-ism was dehumanizing, and they expressed their rebellion by retreating into Eastern religions, mysticism, and paganism. Social historian Theo-dore Roszak points out that there is nothing new about the existence of Theosophists, Spiritualists, Satanists, and other kinds occultists. “What is new,” he wrote in the late 1960s, “is that a radical rejection of science and technological values should appear so close to the center of society, rather than the negligible margins.” Hippies sent the far right into hys-terics, and by the decade’s end Charles Manson became a cautionary symbol of the movement’s perceived immorality. The California press often portrayed him as the head of a satanic cult, and reported details about the Manson Family’s killing spree provided the grist for many a far-fetched fantasy. Regional disruptions such as the Watts riots, Berke-ley campus antiwar protests, and San Francisco’s “Summer of Love” also put the fear of God—or Satan—in conservative Christians.18
© 2020 New York University Press, New York, USA

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter i
  2. Contents vii
  3. Acknowledgments ix
  4. Introduction 1
  5. 1. This Is the Dawning of the Age of Enlightenment . . . and Pranks 25
  6. 2. Con Artists and Consumer Culture 54
  7. 3. Spirits in the Material World 73
  8. 4. Meet the Illuminati 94
  9. 5. The Golden Age of Newspaper Hoaxes 114
  10. 6. Political Pranksters 130
  11. 7. Prank Blowback 150
  12. 8. A Satanic Panic 183
  13. 9. Showbiz Tricksters and the Pop Underground 217
  14. 10. An Education in Pranks 254
  15. Conclusion: Reflections of a Prankster 275
  16. Notes 287
  17. Bibliography 311
  18. Index 333
  19. About the Author 355
Readers are also interested in:
https://doi.org/10.18574/nyu/9780814764367.003.0012

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter i
  2. Contents vii
  3. Acknowledgments ix
  4. Introduction 1
  5. 1. This Is the Dawning of the Age of Enlightenment . . . and Pranks 25
  6. 2. Con Artists and Consumer Culture 54
  7. 3. Spirits in the Material World 73
  8. 4. Meet the Illuminati 94
  9. 5. The Golden Age of Newspaper Hoaxes 114
  10. 6. Political Pranksters 130
  11. 7. Prank Blowback 150
  12. 8. A Satanic Panic 183
  13. 9. Showbiz Tricksters and the Pop Underground 217
  14. 10. An Education in Pranks 254
  15. Conclusion: Reflections of a Prankster 275
  16. Notes 287
  17. Bibliography 311
  18. Index 333
  19. About the Author 355
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