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Frightening Periods in History
I'm trying to come up with some good ideas for stories that revolve around a certain time and place where every day life was terrifying. I know this explanation isn't very clear, but think along the lines of Salem, Mass. during the time of the witch trials. I'm looking for times in history that would lend itseld to a terrifying story that also reflects on the darker side of humanity.
I haven't been but I'd say being in Iraq right now as a soldier would be scary..... or as a civilian
I'd say the black plague spreading in Europe would be a dark time in history and quite terrifying knowing how many people died and how quickly it spread.
There are tons of them including:
The Cold War
9/11
The Massacres of Rwanda
The Columbian Cartel vs. Government war of the 90s
The Building of the Berlin Wall
well hell its a pretty scary time right now with Bush being president of the most powerful country in the world... especially since i'm a democrat... i wake up some nights sweating profusely having nightmares of what that man is going to do next!
WMDs... noo... can't invade Iran... intelligent design, wtf? ... REINSTATE THE DRAFT OMG! AAAAHH! HELP! NO!
Probably in the days of Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon man. Like all animals we would have been pretty much in a constant "fight or flight" mode. Nature is a scary, dangerous, and unpredictable place. Everyday life would have been relatively more frightening for all, you would think. As opposed to you sitting in a chair in your cozy home on a padded chair and saying today is "hella" pretty scary, for example.
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| Originally posted by josh4 WMDs... noo... can't invade Iran... intelligent design, wtf? ... REINSTATE THE DRAFT OMG! AAAAHH! HELP! NO! |
I'd probably say being a resident of central Asia/Europe during the reign of Genghis Khan.
I think he had the greatest line ever when it came to justifying his utter brutality upon those he conquered: "I am the punishment of God. If you had not committed great sins, God would not have sent a punishment like me upon you."
Thanks for the suggestions, remember I am looking for something that would provide a good story too. I think
The Columbian Cartel vs. Government war of the 90s
The Building of the Berlin Wall
the black plague
These are all pretty solid and I think could translate over easily to a good story line.
I cam up with some of my own (kind of).
A story told in the book All Souls Rising: In Haiti the slaves rebelled against their owners and won (according to some). The rebellion, however, would foreshadow a violent a gruesome history that was to come for the country.
Brief discussion about the book and history
Although this isn't really fitting of the scary moments in history, this woman deserves mentioning, as her character could single-hnadedly hold up a story and the fact that this truly happened is quite frightening.
A real-life vampire
oh gawd, you're missing one of the biggest ones ever. 
The Cuban Missle Crisis!!
i was thinking of all those vietnam war movies, which i have saw, either in a war scenario or a flashback from nam.
thinking what would make bush so scared that he will remember the nam days.
war songs?
rambling man, gambling man?
vietnamese dressed in vietcong costumes, or people speaking vietnamese, demonstrations or protest in vietnamese
maybe bush might lose it, and a massacre would happen. claim insanity, postwar syndrome.
i think kerry would be scared too.
Vietnam has been done to death.
How about World war I? quite often the forgotten one. Always found it interesting the different reasons for it, and how people felt it would be over so quickly, yet it turn into a blood bath.
Definently true about World War I, only All Quiet on the Western Front sticks out in my mind. As for WWII, the war in Italy hasn't been done much, or done well for that matter, with that Nicholas Cage and Penelope Cruiz movie.
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| Originally posted by kush paintings All Quiet on the Western Front sticks out in my mind. As for WWII, the war in Italy hasn't been done much, or done well for that matter, with that Nicholas Cage and Penelope Cruiz movie. |
No, a novel is not needed, in fact it would be better if there wasn't. The problem is that nearly every major event in history has been written about, so it is easy to find literary examples of the time periods I was using as examples.
How about the closest the world has ever been to nuclear holocaust (closer than the cuban missile crisis)?
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Shattered Shield 'I Had A Funny Feeling in My Gut' By David Hoffman Washington Post Foreign Service Wednesday, February 10, 1999; Page A19 MOSCOW � It was just past midnight as Stanislav Petrov settled into the commander's chair inside the secret bunker at Serpukhov-15, the installation where the Soviet Union monitored its early-warning satellites over the United States. Then the alarms went off. On the panel in front him was a red pulsating button. One word flashed: "Start." It was Sept. 26, 1983, and Petrov was playing a principal role in one of the most harrowing incidents of the nuclear age, a false alarm signaling a U.S. missile attack. Although virtually unknown to the West at the time, the false alarm at the closed military facility south of Moscow came during one of the most tense periods of the Cold War. And the episode resonates today because Russia's early-warning system has fewer than half the satellites it did back then, raising the specter of more such dangerous incidents. As Petrov described it in an interview, one of the Soviet satellites sent a signal to the bunker that a nuclear missile attack was underway. The warning system's computer, weighing the signal against static, concluded that a missile had been launched from a base in the United States. The responsibility fell to Petrov, then a 44-year-old lieutenant colonel, to make a decision: Was it for real? Petrov was situated at a critical point in the chain of command, overseeing a staff that monitored incoming signals from the satellites. He reported to superiors at warning-system headquarters; they, in turn, reported to the general staff, which would consult with Soviet leader Yuri Andropov on the possibility of launching a retaliatory attack. Petrov's role was to evaluate the incoming data. At first, the satellite reported that one missile had been launched � then another, and another. Soon, the system was "roaring," he recalled � five Minuteman intercontinental ballistic missiles had been launched, it reported. Despite the electronic evidence, Petrov decided � and advised the others � that the satellite alert was a false alarm, a call that may have averted a nuclear holocaust. But he was relentlessly interrogated afterward, was never rewarded for his decision and today is a long-forgotten pensioner living in a town outside Moscow. He spoke openly about the incident, although the official account is still considered secret by authorities here. On the night of the crisis, Petrov had little time to think. When the alarms went off, he recalled, "for 15 seconds, we were in a state of shock. We needed to understand, what's next?" Usually, Petrov said, one report of a lone rocket launch did not immediately go up the chain to the general staff and the electronic command system there, known as Krokus. But in this case, the reports of a missile salvo were coming so quickly that an alert had already gone to general staff headquarters automatically, even before he could judge if they were genuine. A determination by the general staff was critical because, at the time, the nuclear "suitcase" that gives a Soviet leader a remote-control role in such decisions was still under development. In the end, less than five minutes after the alert began, Petrov decided the launch reports must be false. He recalled making the tense decision under enormous stress � electronic maps and consoles were flashing as he held a phone in one hand and juggled an intercom in the other, trying to take in all the information at once. Another officer at the early-warning facility was shouting into the phone to him to remain calm and do his job. "I had a funny feeling in my gut," Petrov said. "I didn't want to make a mistake. I made a decision, and that was it." Petrov's decision was based partly on a guess, he recalled. He had been told many times that a nuclear attack would be massive � an onslaught designed to overwhelm Soviet defenses at a single stroke. But the monitors showed only five missiles. "When people start a war, they don't start it with only five missiles," he remembered thinking at the time. "You can do little damage with just five missiles." Another factor, he said, was that Soviet ground-based radar installations � which search for missiles rising above the horizon � showed no evidence of an attack. The ground radar units were controlled from a different command center, and because they cannot see beyond the horizon, they would not spot incoming missiles until some minutes after the satellites had. Following the false alarm, Petrov went through a second ordeal. At first, he was praised for his actions. But then came an investigation, and his questioners pressed him hard. Why had he not written everything down that night? "Because I had a phone in one hand and the intercom in the other, and I don't have a third hand," he replied. Petrov, who was assigned to the satellite early-warning system at its inception in the 1970s, said in the interview that he knew the system had flaws. It had been rushed into service, he said, and was "raw." Petrov said the investigators tried to make him a scapegoat for the false alarm. In the end, he was neither punished nor rewarded. According to Petrov and other sources, the false alarm was eventually traced to the satellite, which picked up the sun's reflection off the tops of clouds and mistook it for a missile launch. The computer program that was supposed to filter out such information was rewritten. It is not known what happened at the highest levels of the Kremlin on the night of the alarm, but it came at a climactic stage in U.S.-Soviet relations that is now regarded as a Soviet "war scare." According to former CIA analyst Peter Pry, and a separate study by the agency, Andropov was obsessed with the possibility of a surprise nuclear attack by the West and sent instructions to Soviet spies around the world to look for evidence of preparations. One reason for Soviet jitters at the time was that the West had unleashed a series of psychological warfare exercises aimed at Moscow, including naval maneuvers into forward areas near Soviet strategic bastions, such as the submarine bases in the Barents Sea. The 1983 alarm also came just weeks after Soviet pilots had shot down Korean Air Lines Flight 007 and just before the start of a NATO military exercise, known as Able Archer, that involved raising alert levels of U.S. nuclear forces in Europe to simulate preparations for an attack. Pry has described this exercise as "probably the single most dangerous incident of the early 1980s." http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-sr...tter021099b.htm |
When George W. Bush was declared the winner after the chaotic 2000 elections.
I know this was a joke by a fellow TA but I thought at first it was true. It had to be with zombies in Southeast Asia. That really scared me at first
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| Originally posted by LiquidX When George W. Bush was declared the winner after the chaotic 2000 elections. |
I think having a Gore presidency would've been even more scary!
I think another really scary time was during the D.C Snipers. Man it was just like people were dying everyday and then when it spread to Maryland and Virginia people didn't know if it would come to their state next. The scariest part was that it was just random people buying gas or going to a store or going to school.
I think what is even more scary is you in your avatar with a gun
Take your pick:
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| Originally posted by http://www-sul.stanford.edu/depts/ssrg/misc/misery.html A Record of Misery: mass killing in the past five decades This table lists events involving 100,000 or more human deaths. Mass Killings China: Mao's reign of terror, 1949-65 20 million plus [2,4,5] USSR: Stalin's terror, 1936-53 20 million plus [1,2,5] WWII: combatant deaths 16.8 million [4] WWII: noncombatant deaths Russia/USSR:civilian deaths by Nazis 7-12 million [4,5] Europe: The Holocaust, 1933-45 6 million [1,4] Other WWII noncombatant deaths 6 million [4] Sino-Japanese War: 1937-45 3.5 million [4] Korean War: 1950-53 2 million [4] Eritrea: vs Cuba/Ethiopia, 1961-91, inc. 1 mil. famine deaths 1984-85 2 million [4] Vietnam War: 1961-75, incl. 600,000 noncombatants 1.7 million [4] Cambodia: Khmer Rouge killing fields, 1975-79 1.6 million [4] Afghanistan: vs. Soviets, 1979-89 1.3 million [4] China: Civil war, 1945-49 1.2 million [4] Rwanda: Hutus vs Tutsis, 3 months 1994 1 million [3]* *Other estimates are of 500,000+ deaths for this period (Economist 8/20/94 p.33) Sudan: Civil war, 1955-72, 1983- (incl. 250,000 famine deaths in 1988) 1 million [4] Spain: Civil war, 1936-39 610,000 [4,7] Nigeria: Civil war (Biafra), 1967-70, including famine deaths 500,000 [4] Kurdistan: Kurds vs Iraq, Iran, Syria, Turkey, 1925- 500,000 [6] India-Pakistan partition 1949 500,000 Iran-Iraq war, 1987-1992 500,000 Algeria: FLN vs France, 1954-62 300,000 [4] Burundi: Tutsi slaughter of Hutus, 1972 300,000 [8] Pakistan: Reprisals against Bengalis, 9 months in 1971 250,000 [4] Indonesia: Civil war, 1965-66 250,000 [4] Indonesia: Timor war, 1975-88 200,000 [4] Bosnia: "Ethnic cleansing", 1992- 200,000 [3] Congo: Congo-Kinshasa unrest, 1960-66 110,000 [7] Rwanda: Hutu massacre of Tutsis, 1956-65 105,000 [7] Refugees Afghanistan: 1979-94 6 million [3] Rwanda: 3 months, 1994 2.4 million [3] Mozambique: Civil war & famine, 1975-92 1.5 million [3] Iraq: Kurds fleeing after Gulf War, in 6 weeks, 1991 1.4 million [3] Somalia: Civil war, 1988-94 1 million [3] Sources Charny (1988) Genocide: a critical bibliographic review, vol.2. Matthews (1994) Guiness Book of Records, pp. 184-85. Masland (1994) "Will it be Peace or Punishment?," Newsweek (August 1):37. Clodfelter (1992) Warfare and Armed Conflicts, vol. 2. Elliot (1972) Twentieth Century Book of the Dead. "Estmated War Casualties" (Table), Cultural Survival Quarterly, 11(3):11. Bouthoul (1978) "A list of the 366 Majot Armed Conflicts of the period 1740-1974," Peace Research, 10(3):83-108. "Burundi: Not a twin," Economist (August 20, 1994):34. |
Well there is a lot of areas.
Contemporary:
Tibet, Nepal, North Korea, DMZ, East Timor, Balkans, basically all of Africa (but could be in particular Ivory Coast, Sudan, Somolia..), basically all the Arab world if you are a women or love democracy, the Stans, Israel-Palestine, drug-infested areas of South America. If there is a great story all these could be potential backdrops. And no doubt I am missing more.
As for the world wars you have those (I particulalry like Manchuria/China conquered by Japanese stories for some reason), stalin, mao revolt, you have the opium wars in China, you have the many colonial wars in Africa, uprisings in Caribbean as was mentioned. India, etc.
Out of antiquity my favorite stories are the Greek-Perisan wars I&II (where Darius and Xerexs, the biggest empires of all time tried to conquer the technologically and culturally advance, but militarily puny Greeks). You have then the Pelloponesian wars, with a lot of lore and good stories. Then you have Alexander (in the eyes of the Persians this wouldn't be fun) and particularly his seige of Tyre.
Then you have Hannibal in the second punic wars where a Barbarian almost conquered Rome and terrorized the Italian pensulia for almost a decade.
Also you have the Jewish revolt under the Romans and the story of Massada.
Then you get into the Viking age, which was pretty damn scary, next Crusdades.. .and on and on and on...
I don't think it will be too hard to find such examples in history. The hard part will be to chose
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| Originally posted by metalgearsolid I think what is even more scary is you in your avatar with a gun |
It's ok, I haven't needed to use it yet.
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| Originally posted by Fir3start3r oh gawd, you're missing one of the biggest ones ever. The Cuban Missle Crisis!! |
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