Week 16 Wikipedia Trail: From The Manson Family to Helter Skelter (Ride)

The Manson Family

I began my Wikipedia trail this week with the Manson Family after reading one of my classmates final project submission. One thing that I found interesting in this article was that Manson had this idea known as Helter Skelter, where racial tensions would come to a head and blacks would rule over the whites after an a race war would ensue following retaliation over the murders that the family would commit and blame on African Americans.Following the conflict between racist whites and blacks, Manson was planning on the Family ruling over the African Americans.

Helter Skelter (Manson Scenario)

This led to me to the Wiki page for the entire halter skelter idea that Manson had. This entire idea was based on the belief that the blacks would win this race war, and then not be able to run the world correctly, at which point the family would emerge from their hiding in Death Valley, and rule over the blacks who needed their guidance. This is such a ridiculous and racist idea that it blows my mind that people would be wiling to follow this loon to the point of killing innocent people in order to fulfill his "prophecies". I have always found it ridiculous that someone would follow this guy, because if a guy looking like Manson told me this whole story, I would laugh and just think that he was crazy, but I would never for a second think "this guy's got it all figured out."

Helter Skelter (Song)

This Wiki page is about the song that Manson named his idea after. It was a Beatles song on the White Album, which Manson listened to and referenced a lot. One thing I found interesting about this song is that McCartney set out to create a sound "as loud and dirty as possible."

Helter Skelter (Ride)

The page about the helter skelter song led me to this page about a popular British amusement park ride by the same name. In this ride you climb top the inside of a tower, and then slide down a slide that runs along the outside. I find it pretty interesting that a name can go from an amusement park ride, to a loud and dirty song, to a plot to murder people to throw the world into an apocalypse.