THE DECLINE OF PUBLIC CONCERN OVER THE ATOM BOMB

Abstract

The article discusses the reasons for the decline of the atom bomb and nuclear warfare as a public interest issue. It is hypothesized that the decline in public interest came at the point in history when Americans perceived themselves to be powerless to protect themselves against nuclear attack and therefore could no longer define the Bomb as a traditional weapon. An historical analysis of data available from mass media supported the hypothesis indicating that the nuclear question has ceased to be an issue. To determine the impact of nuclear technology today as a public issue, an attitude survey was administered to college freshman at KU, measuring the relationship between powerlessness towards social and political events and complacency towards the growth of nuclear technology. The questionnaire contained statements from the I-E powerlessness scale adapted from Melvin Seeman and statements measuring complacency toward nuclear technology constructed by the author. A Likert scale was employed. It was hypothesized that the greater powerlessness felt by the subject toward social and political events, the greater would be his complacency toward the growth of nuclear technology. The results of the survey indicated that the mojority of subjects did not have sufficient preformulated opinions about nuclear technology to be complacent, and that nuc lear technology is no longer an issue.