Jeff shares the story of Mr. Jones and The Third Wave.

The Third Wave was an experimental movement created by high school history teacher Ron Jones in 1967 to explain how the German population could have accepted the actions of the Nazi regime during the rise of the Third Reich and the Second World War.

While Jones taught his students about Nazi Germany during his senior-level Contemporary World History class, he found it difficult to explain how the German people could have accepted the actions of the Nazis. He decided to create a fictional social movement as a demonstration of the appeal of fascism. Over the course of five days (or nine, according to student Sherry Toulsey), Mr. Jones conducted a series of exercises in his classroom emphasizing discipline and community, intended to model certain characteristics of the Nazi movement.

As the movement grew outside his class and began to number in the hundreds, the experiment spiraled out of control.

Sam's phrase of the week: vortex of fuckery

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• Wikipedia - The Third Wave (Experiment)
• The Wave Home
• Palo Alto Online - The Wave That Changed History
• Libcom - The Third Wave 1967: An Account by Ron Jones
• Lesson Plan (Documentary on Amazon)