California High School History Teacher, Ron Jones, decided to conduct an experiment. He knew that fascism and other movements began with simple issues that compelled people to join and even defend horrible things connected to them. A lot of them starting with easy, understandable material that people could technically believe in. This before they go into the horrible stuff. He decided to test his theory on the students, leading to the experiment now dubbed “The Third Wave.”
[Image via Everett Collection/Shutterstock.com]He wanted to show how Germans were compelled to join The Third Reich. Therefore, Jones spent 5 days creating a social movement in his class called “The Wave.” It was based on the same principles of discipline and order that were compelling portions of fascism. The movement apparently made its way out of class too. Jones then made an announcement that a New Wave Presidential candidate would be appearing, leading to hundreds of people showing up to see the candidate. Jones stopped the study when everyone gathered, telling them this was exactly how fascism began.