Hello internet - and welcome back to the most inquisitive channel on YouTube - Life’s
Biggest Questions - the place where there are many things lurking within the shadows
of our closet - none of which are off the table when it comes to a hypothetical questioning
scenario.
What’s going on guys - as per usual, I’ll be your disembodied floating voice Jack Finch
- as we flick on our Squirtle shaped night light - freeze in terror as the wardrobe door
creaks open - and feel a shadowy claw clutch at our knee - as we terrifyingly consider
the question - What If The Boogeyman Was Real?
Roll the clip.
Now - is it mere coincidence that since ancient times - across the entire planet - mothers
and fathers have told their children the same sort of tale.
For many reasons - but for the most part, as a cautionary tale - as a means to frighten
children into good behaviour, a quaint yet looming threat.
As long as you did what you were told - you’d be safe from the boogeyman.
A monster that has no specific appearance - instead, shaping and morphing into a different
kind of nightmare - varying from household to household, culture to culture.
But - what if there was something more to it.
What if the Boogeyman - was real?
Before we find out the answer to that potentially terrifying question - you know the drill by
now guys.
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On with the show.
The word bogey is derived from the Middle English - bogge, or bugge - meaning either
scarecrow - or something frightening.
There are theories that the word also derives from the German phrase - boggel-mann, meaning
goblin - a creature steeped in Euro-Germanic and Scandinavian folklore that steals children
and wrecks mischief.
It’s strange though that language has always found a word or phrase that correlates to
the same figure.
In Lowland Scots it is bogle - in Dutch it is boeman.
In Old Norse it is puki - and in English - puck.
A similar cultural phrase - a bugbear, derived from bug - meaning goblin, was imagined in
the form of a demonic beastial creature that ate small children - and was similarly used
to signify an object or entity that personified dread and fear.
For thousands of years - our species has codependently found similar words for the same meaning.
An almost intangible figure that society can bolster its ranks against - shelter it’s
children from the looming threat of evil.
Considerably though - that shared concept is older than civilization itself.
In the Luo Dialects of Eastern Africa - a branch of the ancient Nilotic languages spoken
in South Sudan and Tanzania - the term ‘booga’ - which means to scare - is as ancient as
the language itself.
We could argue that language simply finds a way - an amalgamation of sound cobbled together
to express the same meaning - the shared concept of a Boogeyman.
Does this suggest then - that humanity expects evil?
On an even deeper note - does the expectation of evil make up the very fabric of our civilization?
Is the reason that when we crawled out of the primordial soup and sat around a shared
campfire - we told stories about the dangers of the dark because we needed to.
We were compelled to share our fear - because with comfort comes complacency.
Fear is the driving force that kept our ancestors alive.
It is the means to ensure our survival.
It is the same reason hundreds of thousands of people are terrified of spiders - or the
same reason that we feel a knot in the pit of our stomach when staring down a tall building.
Fear is intangible - yet it’s easier to defeat when it has a face and a body.
The Boogeyman is very much real - because we created him.
In many Latin countries - Brazil, Portugal, Spain - the boogeyman is portrayed as a figure
with a sack on his back that carries naughty children away.
He is known as hombre del saco - or el roba-chicos, meaning child stealer.
In Italy - the Babau is portrayed as a tall man wearing a heavy black coat - with a black
hood that hides his face.
In Romania, and many countries in the Eastern Mediterranean - the same figure is used to
threaten misbehaving children.
In Germanic folklore - the Butzemann has various appearances and forms - a gnome, a man, an
animal - a ghost or devil - that are said to emerge at very specific places.
Deep in forests - at large bodies of water, at the edge of a steep cliff.
In Germany, children also play the game Wer hat Angst vorm schwarzen Mann - Who Is Afraid
of the Boogeyman?
A halcyon way for children to confront their own fears.
In England - Grindylow, Jenny Greenteeth and Nelly Longarms were the vile, grotesque hags
who lived in ponds and rivers - and they would drag children into the water and drown them
if they got too close.
During the time of the Roman Republic - the military successes of Hannibal Barca’s campaign
across the Italian Peninsula were so devastating and damaging to the region, that Roman mothers
would tell their children brutal tales of Hannibal himself.
If they misbehaved, he would enter their home and night and carry them away.
Hannibal - by definition - was the self made boogeyman of Roman culture.
It’s interesting then, that in 1957 - in Haiti - the tyrannical despot Francois Duvalier,
seized political power of the country by embodying the same kind of fear.
Deliberately, Duvaliver modeled himself on the image of Baron Samedi - a spirit of the
loa in Haitian Vodou - playing on the shared cultural fears of the people of Haiti.
Publically, he would wear sunglasses to hide his eyes - and often deliver speeches in the
strong nasal tone associated with the loa. Francois Duvalier captivated the fears of
an entire nation - and used it to maintain power.
He became the literal embodiment of The Boogeyman.
A murderer and a dictator - and living proof that the Boogeyman IS very much - real.
Well - unfortunately folks, that’s all we’ve got time for in today’s video - cheers for
sticking around all the way to the end.
If this video has resonated with you in any way - let us know your thoughts in the comment
section down below.
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As always, I’ve been your host Jack Finch - you’ve been watching Life’s Biggest
Questions - and until next time, you take it easy.