superstition in society theme
Discussed is how superstitious beliefs can permeate and shape everyday society.
Examples
In tz1985e1x11a "The Beacon", we saw a community of backwards people that for hundreds of years had shut themselves away from civilization and progress in order to practice human sacrifice and appease a perceived ghost they thought inhabited the lighthouse.
9 total · 6 major · 3 minor
| Story | Level | Motivation |
|---|---|---|
| movie: Hard to Be a God (1989) | major | The inventor of the printing press, the germ theory of disease, and the telescope were all persecuted and their ideas maligned because of superstition and religion. |
| rbt1985e2x08 | major | The Ghastly Passenger, a ghost, was migrating to Britain because belief in his kind was waning on the continent, leaving him with a lack of vitality. |
| tz1959e3x23 | major | The story parodied a community of many dimwitted and superstitious country bumpkins. |
| tz1959e5x07 | major | We saw a community of people who believed in the mysterious powers of a man-in-a-cave. Their beliefs were challenged by a gang of marauding soldiers. |
| tz1985e1x11a | major | Dr. Barrows stumbled on an isolated coastal town whose inhabitants believed their long departed ancestor inhabited their lighthouse as a god. |
| tz2019e2x08 | major | A recurring theme was the eagerness of country bumpkins to believe in superstitious things: that the mayor was responsible for the random miracles, that Emilio was a witch. |
| ftt1982e3x07 | minor | The story made light some comically superstitious peasants. |
| movie: The Great Ziegfeld (1936) | minor | Ziegfeld repeatedly touched an elephant over the span of five weeks for good luck, but to no avail. According to Ziegfeld, he was told by an "old Hindu" that "if you touch an elephant's trunk and he raises it, everything will be all right". |
| movie: You Can't Take It with You (1938) | minor | Penny mocked Mrs. Kirby her for being a student of occultism. |