GRGR (14): Lemmings

[Tony Assenza]

> "... or the lemmings rushing into the sea". (p. 318)
>
>
>  Some time ago there were articles in the press saying that biologists found
>  out that this - in contrary to what everybody believes to know - is not
>quite
>  true. Anyone for clarification?
>
>                                                    KFL

The myth of lemmings throwing themselves off cliffs in mass suicide
persists even though it's been debunked. Often. If I remember correctly,
the story started with a newsreel that showed lemmings swarming off a cliff
in panic. The panic was apparently caused by the newsreel crew. It was all
bogus. Lemmings don't commit mass suicide. In case anybody missed it in the
newsreels, Ripley, of Believe it or Not fame, ran the lemming suicide as a
piece in his syndicated newspaper piece and in a short time, every kid in
the country believed it as fact.

The lemming/mass suicide phenomenon has since become ingrained in the
public mind and nothing can get it out of there. Even the truth.

Apparently spooking animals isn't limited to goofy newsreels or lower order
mammals. American Indians would often do the same thing to kill buffalo.
They'd start a stampede and force a herd off a cliff -- the famous buffalo
jumps, evidence of which can be found to this day. Saves wear and tear on
horses and weapons and reduces risk to the hunters.

Bringing all this back to our common interest, spooking lemmings and
buffalo might be considered a form of primitive Psy Ops -- confuse and
panic your opponent and maybe he'll kill himself. If you can't get him to
jump off a cliff, maybe you can scramble his neurons with psychoactive
agents and render him helpless. Or jump out of a New York hotel window.

Or maybe even implant the confusion like a dormant virus in the brain of a
baby, or all babies, to be activated at a later time when and if the
baby(ies) might pose some threat. I'm surprised somebody like Stalin never
tried a wholesale conditioned response experiment on the Eastern Bloc
populations. Or maybe he did and only now is it just wearing off.