It gives people a plan so they won’t spend as much time worrying over something they don’t really have any control over. Though if you have time to see any type of bomb about to hit/explode it’s not terrible advice.
Duck and cover was used to keep kids quiet and stop them from panicking. had there ever been a real nuclear attack, you wouldn't want to be an irradiated survivor anyway.
That's not quite right. It depends largely on the distance. If you're very close, you'll vaporize anyway. If you're a little further away, you can get third-degree burns. But if you're even further away, the duck and cover method can protect you from shrapnel and somewhat from the effects of the blast wave. If you survive that, you can seek shelter from the radioactive fallout.
I remember my grandmother telling me about when they would do drills like this and watch these kinds of films, and she came home and told her father (my great grandfather) about it, and he simply told her “if an atom bomb is dropped, chances are we aren’t going to survive”.
That’s similar to what my dad told me on 9/11. He said he picked me up from school early because he didn’t want to deal with traffic (still not entirely sure if that was an excuse so I didn’t worry because he was worried and he wanted everyone home and together) and he told me that terrorists aren’t going to target us because we aren’t important enough for them to notice and there’s no point in worrying about things we have no control over. Then a few months later a 15 year old boy stole a Cessna and copycat crashed it into the Bank of America skyscraper downtown, so while he had a valid point Murphy’s Law tripped it flat on its face. Luckily it was after hours so no one else was hurt and all he accomplished was totally destroying a single office room.
I was taught this drill when I was in elementary school. I came to understand later that it was pretty much useless, but I guess the developers of the drill had their reasons. Perhaps it was a way of given hope to a populace terrified of what had happened in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Part of it is that it is genuinely good advice if you are far enough away from the center of the blast to not be a guaranteed casualty but still close enough for its effects to harm you if you don't take any precautions. Part of it is as you say a placebo effect so people don't worry as much due to thinking there's effective precautions they could take even when it wouldn't be much help. And part of it is so people don't start asking questions about how the government is going to respond to the wider effects of a nuclear blast, such as fallout, loss of services and utilities, lack of medical facilities, etc. that they didn't and still don't have an effective plan for.
I was born in 1968. My mom told me a story about the duck and cover. She was born in 1950. But she learned it as she was older. Saw this video (movie reels) in my classroom. It was part of history.
These films are rightfully mocked today, but people mock them for both right and wrong reasons. The advice in this video is useful...provided you are already far enough away from the center of the detonation but not so far as to be completely safe. For example, many people were needlessly injured during the 2020 Beirut explosion because they stopped to look and stare at the explosion rather than take cover. These films were meant to assuage citizens fears by addressing the immediate effects of an atomic blast. "Why, here's ways to more easily survive the blast, so don't worry too much." What the film doesn't address, and what no country really is able to fully address, is the more long term effects of a nuclear exchange. Things like fallout, collapse of social services, nuclear winter, etc. As the arms race ramped up from merely hundreds of bombers dropping relatively small atomic bombs to ICBMs delivering thousands of much larger warheads, and as society grew more aware of the issues with things like fallout, the sense of security these films provided completely collapsed and people mocked them by implying they were no help at all, which isn't 100% true. But it's much better to imagine the bomb will kill us all instantly than to acknowledge the grim realization it'll do it slowly for most of us.
Apparently the most watched American television film about the aftermath of nuclear war "The Day After" 1983 was shown theatrically in India but I cannot find out if it was in Hindi. search results keep bringing up the movie "The Day After Tomorrow" by the ton instead.
They filmed much of that in my hometown of Lawrence, Kansas. My little brother was an extra in it. I can still vividly remember sitting in a car, at riverside park & watching them film the tent city scenes across the river.
Or "Sum if All Fear" was pretty good and it'll show exactly just like "The Day After." I love the movie "Sum Of All Fear" it's good but the fear of the bomb dropped.
@@stephanievivier290 "The Sum of All Fears" is a Tom Clancy movie. I doubt you even know that the main character was in "Hunt For Red October" and "Clear and Present Danger" Plus it wasn't about fear of the bomb. The novel was about the Palestinians were upset their goal to wipe out Israel was being thwarted by a peace treaty to among other things have Jerusalem be secured by the Vatican Swiss Guard. So these Jihadis recruited an East German scientist to fix a lost Israeli nuclear weapon from the Yom Kipper war. They would use the bomb and have Iran be blamed for it
I didn't listen a lot in elementary school so I just did whatever the teacher said. I was an adult when I learned why we did it. To tell the truth, since I lived in California I thought we were doing it for earthquakes.
My family knew someone who survived the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. She was just a young kid and she had just arrived at school. She was in the schoolyard with her friends and she sat down against a wall. And that was then the bomb hit. She said that sitting against the wall saved her. All her friends and everyone in the schoolyard died. The force of the explosion went right over her. She had chosen the right spot to sit down at the right time. I can't even BEGIN to imagine what that had to have been like for her.
Hopefully she had a good life after surviving the horror of surviving a nuclear bomb. Today's devices are much more powerful and frankly you'd probably be better off going in the 1st flash.
Duck and Cover is the equivalent of someone today saying..when hearing the sirens...put a herring on your head and say Gonyff Gonyff Gonyff... Wont help one bit, but at least you're going out with a bit of fun..
duck and cover COULD help prevent injuries, if you are far away enough from the detonation center. Of course, if the bomb explodes right over you, you are going to be reduced to vapor in an instant and there is nothing you can do. Also, the advice says absolutely nothing on how to behave after the detonation in order to minimize exposure to fallout.
@@arthur_p_dent if you can feel the blast and the heat youre done for regardless of anything. A lot of the scientists messing with the Manhattan project got sick and died of things all thought to be related to exposure to radiation..
@@ebbhead20 it's true, in most cases "duck and cover" will only be the difference between terrible and slightly less terrible. That said - if the heat and the blast don't inflice any immediate injuries to you AND you manage to escape the fallout - then your chances are pretty good. Mighty big "if" of course.
You should have explained to them that these old information films are ridiculed and laughed at as absolutely useless advice in the event of nuclear attack.
because real info would make people question why we have hundreds of times more bombs than needed to wipe out the population. The heavily censored tv movie "The Day After" 1983 shocked Reagan so much he was actually along with Gorbachev going to remove the nuclear arsenals but hard liners on both sides stopped it.
I hope it is clarified for their benefit this video had very little in useful information. People alive at the time knew "Duck & Cover" was joke. Internationally famous American comedian, Lewis Black, had an older bit (probably very easy to find on youtube) where he makes fun of this bit: Something to the effect that the teacher and surrounding countryside has turn to a wasteland and the desk a pile of burning sticks, but armed with the "Duck & Cover" information, he would survive another day...to walk out into the radioactive wasteland...and...I think the rest is left as an exorcise for the listener...or the second Fallout game, you know, either way. OOH! There's a react to look forward to: Fallout
I'm sure everyone will agree with me that the villagers that these guys should react to SCP for the first time because I know for a fact they probably never heard of this so it'll be interesting to see the reaction to this about learning what other SCP they could find interesting
It’s not a documentary. It is not a joke. They are hardly speechless. The film (there were no videos when this was created) is not crazy. Their own government has over 170 nukes that would make Baboo stop his stupid singing real fast. Hope that helps.
Of course the US defence department would be well aware of the danger being the ones who needlessly loosed it on cities 6 years before. Somewhat ironic this video really. Also full of useless information. Talk about giving your citizens busy work to distract from the impending doom!
The absolute insane & artificial and playacted gesticulating & grimacing of the old guy ruins it for me now every time. That old guy and his hyperactive, ridiculous armwaving are driving me NUTS and makes all those reactions at large parts unwatchable. Further I have again the impression, that they aren't getting a proper translation of the things they see at the screen. Narrator: That's what we do in the case of an ATOMIC attack. Old guy: They are getting instructions! The guy, who told both reactors at the beginning, what this is all about: "Instructions for the case of an attack". Forgets to tell them, that this is all about an ATOMIC attack and not just some random attack. I stopped watching after three minutes, when I realized, that they STILL are not informed about the central nature of this duck and cover instruction film. The central element of it is the ATOMIC attack danger of the cold war and they are obviously not able to translate that properly to their reactors. Very disappointing, like so very often with this reaction channel. PS: I scrolled through the rest and finally they were given the information, that this is about ATOMIC attacks...during the old guy is still gesticulating, as if he's connected to a live cable... Just tell that old guy to behave normal, please. This isn't even a believable reaction for a three year old child.
