To Radio Listeners in 1938 Who Thought "War of the Worlds" Was Real

Today, we smirk, all smug in our 21st century wisdom and hindsight.

So gullible, we say, we’re so much smarter now.

We think fears are different. Our fears are real; we can see the tracers of them in the air, even if we can’t see what makes them. Something must, and that enough is evidence. But aliens suddenly invading the world? Come on. Nonsense.

But you know better. Even if, days later, you were ashamed to admit it, in the moment, you knew it was possible, even plausible. You’d seen things you never thought you’d see. You saw the decadence of the 1920’s, the short dresses and long cigarettes. The new cars people would drive, going nowhere, just for the drive itself. Cities blocks bursting with immigrants, and the nation had finally reached the Pacific Ocean, taken over the whole continent, from sea to shining sea and the party was on. 

And then, out of nowhere, dust. Dust so fine it would settle in the very creases of your ears as easily as it blew off the prairies. Breadlines and soup lines and unemployment lines snaking around corners. All pride finally swallowed. 

Abroad, the news is bleak. War, again, continental wide. Every day, news reports suggest any day now, any minute, the enemy is coming. You have to live in two times: the now--when you are looking for work, doing day jobs, taking in laundry--and the could be--boys getting called by the draft, packing up small duffle bags, taking a couple photos, maybe. Of course, you would be proud of them, but you wish more they didn’t have to go. 

Aliens? A supreme intelligence that finally has finally made its way here? Look at the skylines, look at the roads, look at the factories and radios and telephones. When the question is “How far can this go?”, the imagination answers with all the possibilities. Men from Mars or the moon in a world like this--unpredictable, terrifying, uncontrollable--seems as reasonable as a market crash, as wastelands in Oklahoma, as world war. Another world war.

When the news breaks, when you hear the screams and eye witness reports, when you hear the events unfolding, when you haven’t felt safe in your own living room for years, you are not a fool for believing. 

You have trusted enough. I don’t blame you. You were not the first. You will not be the last.