Progressives have been using fiction -- books, plays and movies -- to not only sway public attitudes, but to get legislation passed and nanny state programs initiated for more than a century that I've seen. I discovered this researching the late 18/early 19th C white slavery panic. The 1910 Mann Act outlawed interstate prostitution rings responsible for 50,000 US women going missing yearly. From 1910 to WWII, a handful of men were prosecuted for taking a woman on a naughty weekend in another state, but no organizations.
The topic search turned up something I wasn't originally looking for - reviews of books, plays & even a few movies on the topic. None of them were big enough hits that I'd ever heard of them. But the purpose was clear. Influence public opinion, install a social service organization and generate new law.
For the same reason the White House Office of National Drug Control policy is a liaison to Hollywood, to get movies & TV shows to promote drug-war narratives.
Who needs facts when fiction can your goals enacted?
Progressives have been using fiction -- books, plays and movies -- to not only sway public attitudes, but to get legislation passed and nanny state programs initiated for more than a century that I've seen. I discovered this researching the late 18/early 19th C white slavery panic. The 1910 Mann Act outlawed interstate prostitution rings responsible for 50,000 US women going missing yearly. From 1910 to WWII, a handful of men were prosecuted for taking a woman on a naughty weekend in another state, but no organizations.
The topic search turned up something I wasn't originally looking for - reviews of books, plays & even a few movies on the topic. None of them were big enough hits that I'd ever heard of them. But the purpose was clear. Influence public opinion, install a social service organization and generate new law.
For the same reason the White House Office of National Drug Control policy is a liaison to Hollywood, to get movies & TV shows to promote drug-war narratives.
Who needs facts when fiction can your goals enacted?