Witches, Communists, Racists?

Pointing fingers and name calling was used during the Salem Witch Trials, the McCarthy hearings and today in many forms. Islamophobic, homophobe, racist, hater and white supremacist are only several of the many names one can hear thrown around,
used to label individuals and sometimes large groups of people.

How does society get to the point in which pointing fingers and labeling someone as a hater of some sort comes to control that society? Perhaps that answer cannot be fully answered. Perhaps there are too many shades of gray to determine this for sure.

Regardless of how this is started, it can be a major problem. Many people are afraid of being labeled something seen as negative in society and are willing to bow to pressure to not be labeled as such. Fear has the ability to affect someone’s life and giving into such fears can alleviate feelings of hate and discrimination.

History shows us what can happen when people become afraid of a word or words. Careers were destroyed. Lives were destroyed and in some cases lives were lost due to suicide.

In the year 1954, a senator by the name of McCarthy began accusing military and other government officials of being ‘communists.’ During this time, the Cold War was a cause of fear many Americans held. Fear of nuclear destruction was strong and real. Many people displayed this fear by being scared of anyone labeled as a communist.

This fear seems today to resonate through the American populous but in a different form. Communism seems to no longer be the word of fear. Now words such as racist, homophobe, islamaphobe and so forth appear to be the words of fear. Many Americans bow to political correctness, and they are willing to compromise their lives and values to avoid such titles.

Such labels can destroy careers and lives. These labels may cause a business to fail due to boycotts. These labels can also be the source of death threats, violence and riots.

The USHistory.org website explains, “On February 20, 1950, McCarthy addressed the Senate and made a list of dubious

claims against suspected communists. He cited 81 cases that day. He skipped several numbers, and for some cases repeated the same flimsy information. He proved nothing, but the Senate called for a full investigation. McCarthy was in the national spotlight.”

The website continues later with, “Not a voice was raised to protest the repeated attacks on individuals or organizations until counsel Welch countered McCarthy’s gratuitous attack on his young law associate. It is a measure of our degradation that a man could become a national hero by condemning such “cruelty” while remaining silent about the maligning of loyal citizens who continue as members of the same legitimate professional group”

Eventually these threat words will lose their power, but at this
point in time these names are affecting how many of those in the American society act. In cities and towns across the country, one can see this fearmongering tactic used over-and-over. This tactic is used to soil one’s name, threaten one’s business or even threaten one’s life.

Why such tactics and why they succeed is probably a matter of scholarly debate and study. What one can see is how the tactics work. What one can see is how these temporary words hurt those in the present. As history shows, these ‘word’ attacks happen again and again.

The Salem Witch Trials donned the word ‘witch’ and gave some people power over others through the use of fear. A married man may have an affair, and then blame it on the woman as some sort of enchantment. Those involved in the trials developed ways to see if one is innocent, but this usually meant the death of the accused.

Jess Blumberg authored an article for the “Smithsonian Magazine” describing what launched the witch trials.

Blumberg reported, “In January of 1692, Reverend (Samuel) Parris’ daughter Elizabeth, age 9, and niece Abigail Williams, age 11, started having “fits.” They screamed, threw things, uttered peculiar sounds and contorted themselves into strange positions, and a local doctor blamed the supernatural. Another girl, Ann Putnam, age 11, experienced similar episodes. On February 29, under pressure from magistrates Jonathan Corwin and John Hathorne, the girls blamed three women for afflicting them: Tituba, the Parris’ Caribbean slave; Sarah Good, a homeless beggar; and Sarah Osborne, an elderly impoverished woman.”
On June 10, 1692 an older woman named Bridget Bishop became the first person hanged for being a witch. She died at a spot now known as “Gallows Hill.” Eighteen others hung at Gallows Hill, an elderly man pressed to death with heavy stones, and others died in jail. Approximately 200 people fell victim of accusations of practicing magic.

People use these words of hate combat those with opposing views. Rather than create a dialogue, it seems name calling and threats the preferred method of debate. Some make the accusations, and then others are the accused.

 

 

Source References and Materials Available upon Request