Salem Witch Trials: Repeated?

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Satochu

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I am now studying the Salem Witch trials in my American Literature course. It is interesting to note that a few people in my class who read about the Puritans during this time believe that these people had no will of their own or were oblivious to "the true facts" of life: That God would not want them to live in such a way or that the Puritans were "crazy".
(I wonder why they have such an immature view, especially since this is a college course, not a high school class, but I may be speaking a bit too "high-and-mighty"... >_<).

It is true that the Puritans were pious people who at times let their faith cloud their judgment but they were hard workers and the backbone of American society today.

What I would like to know is: are there any cases today that would resemble the Salem Witch Trails of 1692?

What comes to mind for me is the war in Iraq but as I may be wrong in this assumption.
 
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What I would like to know is: are there any cases today that would resemble the Salem Witch Trails of 1692?
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Terrorism accusations and sex offender accusations - particularly pedophile cases.
 
Zeta said:
Terrorism accusations and sex offender accusations - particularly pedophile cases.
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Wow...-smacks face- I just asked a question with an obvious answer, ddin't I...?
 
Not necissarily, I thought you were just asking just to get people's opinions. It also isn't high and mighty to think that way, I assume that that could be a lower division class. Not everyone in college is in "college thinking" mode yet in general ed classes, it also mixes in with people of different majors who probably have more skill in other places.

That said, I also think of the Cold War as a modern Witch hunt, but it isn't necessarily the same, but the ideas are similar.
 
bell02+ said:
Not necissarily, I thought you were just asking just to get people's opinions. It also isn't high and mighty to think that way, I assume that that could be a lower division class. Not everyone in college is in "college thinking" mode yet in general ed classes, it also mixes in with people of different majors who probably have more skill in other places.

That said, I also think of the Cold War as a modern Witch hunt, but it isn't necessarily the same, but the ideas are similar.
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Yeah, I am asking for opinions.....I didn't mean to sound as if I was looking for a straight answer. It seemed like Zeta pointed out some issues that I didn't even think about--and I felt silly that I didn't.
But I'm glad Zeta pointed it out! -nods-

Cold War similar to the Witch Hunts? How were the ideas similar?
Do you mean the Red Scare, when those two 'communists' were killed?
If so, then I can see the similarity. It's surprising how history seems to repeat itself (like a cycle) when we have such a linear society...

^_^;; and thanks for reminding me that not everyone who takes a Lit. class is a Lit. major. I will keep that in mind. :)
 
The Cold War is a classic example of a modern witch hunt. People were accused of being communists for various odd reasons (for example, if you read Robin Hood to kids, you were accused of being a communist). In fact, playwright Arthur Miller who was accused of being a communist, drew a similarity between the communist witch hunt and the Salem witch trials and was thus inspired to write a play on the Salem witch trials, The Crucible.
 
The Cold War is a classic example of a modern witch hunt. People were accused of being communists for various odd reasons (for example, if you read Robin Hood to kids, you were accused of being a communist). In fact, playwright Arthur Miller who was accused of being a communist, drew a similarity between the communist witch hunt and the Salem witch trials and was thus inspired to write a play on the Salem witch trials, The Crucible.
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The same thing is now happening with being Muslim. "Oh so and so is a secret Muslim, which means he's a murderous terrorists, as all Muslims are."
 
Jeff said:
The Cold War is a classic example of a modern witch hunt. People were accused of being communists for various odd reasons (for example, if you read Robin Hood to kids, you were accused of being a communist). In fact, playwright Arthur Miller who was accused of being a communist, drew a similarity between the communist witch hunt and the Salem witch trials and was thus inspired to write a play on the Salem witch trials, The Crucible.
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I remember that play studying that play but I did not know Miller was accused of being a communist. Both these instances (?) in history, Witch Trials and Red Scare, set people against one another in the most vicious of ways.(This is the similarity, right?)
Would any war fall under this category?

How was Robin Hood seen as a work of communist fiction? Is it because he 'took from the rich and gave to the poor'?
I thought that in our society, this was one of the beliefs we supported ourselves on. True, nowadays it is more 'take what you can and pity no one' and 'hard work prevails above all'...may you please explain?
 
Don't forget the steroid investigations in sports. Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Marion Jones and recently Alex Rodriguez, countless others in this witch hunt.

the concept of socialism or communism wasn't present when the story of robin hood came about.

it was more of a case where the powerful abusing the laws that they lay forth, so being lawful was not viewed upon as being good. so, therefore, the unlawful were the good ones. the ones breaking the laws were the good guys, specifically the ones breaking laws that only harmed, in a non-fatal way, the ones benefitting from the tyranical legal system.

it had nothing to do with the money itself, but the fact that it was happening and in doing so, sticking it to the proverbial man. stealing money from the already rich, tyrannical rulers was the ideal manifestation of injustice for justice.
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Source
 
A witch trial means there has to actually be nothing there. The thing with steroids is, everyone was juicing, and we're only now finding out about it.
 
Are you reading The Crucible? I really liked that play.

History always seems to repeat itself because people never learn anything from it. They just want to forget it ever happened. I think that's wrong. We should study so we can learn from it.
 
domesticshorthair said:
Are you reading The Crucible? I really liked that play.

History always seems to repeat itself because people never learn anything from it. They just want to forget it ever happened. I think that's wrong. We should study so we can learn from it.
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No...but I did read it in high school! I think I will re-read it, so I can better understand the comparison between Communisim and the Witch Trials. The Crucilbe adapted very well to the big screen. I thought it was pretty impressive.

We should study history to learn from it. You are completely right when you say that people would rather forget the past and look torward the future.
Although, I think I can see why someone would rather forget about history if it became too personal. No one likes to relive a horrible experience but if one cannot look back and consider what happened then they cannot look forward and grow.
 
Satochu said:
I remember that play studying that play but I did not know Miller was accused of being a communist. Both these instances (?) in history, Witch Trials and Red Scare, set people against one another in the most vicious of ways.(This is the similarity, right?)
Would any war fall under this category?
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I haven't read The Crucible since 10th grade American Lit (which is when I learned about Miller). That was about a decade ago, so if memory serves correctly Miller actually went to jail for a little while after being accused of communism. Might have to do some digging around on that one, but don't have the time now. The similarity, in my eyes anyway, is that in both incidents people were being falsely accused for various ridiculous reasons.

How was Robin Hood seen as a work of communist fiction? Is it because he 'took from the rich and gave to the poor'?
I thought that in our society, this was one of the beliefs we supported ourselves on. True, nowadays it is more 'take what you can and pity no one' and 'hard work prevails above all'...may you please explain?
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I think that was the reason given, and yeah it's pretty ridiculous. Hence why it's such a great example. It shows how people threw all common sense to the wind as they did during the witch trials.
 
Satochu said:
We should study history to learn from it. You are completely right when you say that people would rather forget the past and look torward the future.
Although, I think I can see why someone would rather forget about history if it became too personal. No one likes to relive a horrible experience but if one cannot look back and consider what happened then they cannot look forward and grow.
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Yup, I mean there you have my parents. I'm particularly interested not so much in Nazi Germany, but in Hitler himself, and of course, Soviet Russia, as well, Czarist Russia, too. I mean, I try to read his biographies, and everything, just to try to undersand why and how he rose to power, did the things that he did, and all that, what made him tick, you know. I mean, my parents think Hitler was a communist. I'm like, I think that guy hated the communists, as well and the jews, he was a fascist.

And just look at 9/11, they went on for weeks and weeks and weeks about it on the news right after it happened, not realizing how sick everybody probably was of the whole thing, after a few days of watching and hearing about it. I know I was, for sure. And now...how long has it been? Not even ten years, and yet, people seem to be forgetting about it all ready. Hardly anyone remembers 9/11 anymore. In my senior year in high school, no one remembered. I graduated in 2005. No one remembers Pearl Harbor, and that wasn't so long ago.

That's what ticks me off. Now, I'm not saying, like you should wear mourning every year, or something like that, but you shouldn't forget either. IMO, it was disrespectful to the people who died, the way, they used what happened as some kind of publicity, or something, and then just forget about it, as if nothing happened,which is basically what most people, at least most people I know anyway, tend to do.
 
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Yeah, that guy was the best of the Beatles.













I hope no one expected that to be serious. Undoubtedly something like that is bound to flare up again in the US. Only a matter of time. Wonder what it'll be this time, though... with the Christian Right, though, I've got a good guess.
 
domesticshorthair said:
Yup, I mean there you have my parents. I'm particularly interested not so much in Nazi Germany, but in Hitler himself, and of course, Soviet Russia, as well, Czarist Russia, too. I mean, I try to read his biographies, and everything, just to try to undersand why and how he rose to power, did the things that he did, and all that, what made him tick, you know. I mean, my parents think Hitler was a communist. I'm like, I think that guy hated the communists, as well and the jews, he was a fascist.

And just look at 9/11, they went on for weeks and weeks and weeks about it on the news right after it happened, not realizing how sick everybody probably was of the whole thing, after a few days of watching and hearing about it. I know I was, for sure. And now...how long has it been? Not even ten years, and yet, people seem to be forgetting about it all ready. Hardly anyone remembers 9/11 anymore. In my senior year in high school, no one remembered. I graduated in 2005. No one remembers Pearl Harbor, and that wasn't so long ago.

That's what ticks me off. Now, I'm not saying, like you should wear mourning every year, or something like that, but you shouldn't forget either. IMO, it was disrespectful to the people who died, the way, they used what happened as some kind of publicity, or something, and then just forget about it, as if nothing happened,which is basically what most people, at least most people I know anyway, tend to do.
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Concerning 9/11, I believe it all depends on where you lived during the time. I lived in the city and my father worked in Manhattan. I was in the 7th grade and everybody was sent home. Even a year after the attacks, the fear that we had been attacked still lingered. People became more cautious and for a while they became a bit more friendly. Granted, this 'friendly-ness' did not last for very long but the 'patriotism' remained. I couldn't walk anywhere without being bombarded about being American and true to my country and all that.
But the fear remained and although no one cared to say it aloud, we changed.
Of course my family moved away from NYC practically two years after.
It's too hard for me to forget what happened. Sure I could go on not thinking about it for a long time, but certain images remind me of what happened.

What I didn't like was getting bombarded by those images day in and day out, and knowing that people who lost family or friends suffered each time they watched the news. I believe that when the news continued to show the images, they were doing so in an attempt to de-sensitize us to the attacks, because they do not want us to feel the fear or whatever.

Either way, you are completely right. There was no reason to try and cover it up with fake patriotism and accuse anyone who looked remotely Muslim of being a terrorist. That's just crazy.

What's really stupid about 9/11 was that it could have been prevented in so many ways. And yet it was not.
Like the Salem Witch trials, the government ignored the obvious signs and went forward as if nothing happened. And when the shit finally hit the fan (excuse me for using the phrase) they try to justify it and blame everyone but themselves. Hence our 'war on terrorism'.

It's sad to know that no one remembers. Where did you live? (I should have asked before I ranted...) Is this bound to happen again?
Are we going to repeat this same mistake?
I don't know....

Pearl Harbor is remembered for being a horribly boring movie. The only thing that really sticks to mind is the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. But it's not something people talk about. And I don't know about those who were alive at the time. My guess is that they are dead.

I apologize if I said anything offensive.
 
Yeah, see, that's just what it is. Like you said, 'fake patriotism'. I mean, where is all that patriotism now? Where was it before? That had to happen to make people realize they loved their country?

I live in Phoenix, AZ. Over here we don't really have tall buildings, at least not like in New York.

The image I remember most, is people jumping out of windows, and falling from the building that way. See, I think they just gave the exact same report every day. At the exact same time every day, I would turn the television on to see if they were finally going to go back to the regular programming, and saw the exact same image. You're right, if it was upsetting for me, it must have been horrible for the people who lost friends or family members. I mean, what if, like, you saw someone falling, and you were like, 'that's my father!'. And seeing it day after day.

That 'war on terrorism'! It's just the gov pretending that they're doing something, I think. I mean, didn't terrorism exist before 9/11?

As for whether it could happen again...it could, is my guess. Whenever I've crossed the border, believe it or not, it's not THAT hard to sneak something in. Especially if you're determined to. See, everything about enforcing border security, illegals and that, should be something constant, you know. IMO, what's the good of enforcing things like that for, say, a few months or years after such an incident? It should be all the time.

No, Pearl Harbor was in December 1941. Sixty eight years ago. The bombings in 1945. Sixty four. It wasn't THAT long ago. If you were say ten, you'd be seventy four. Ten might be too young to remember, but it still seems like such a short time, you know. I think if you go, the radiation can still affect you. And, of course, you can still see, like the marks where people were standing the day of the bombing
 
domesticshorthair said:
As for whether it could happen again...it could, is my guess. Whenever I've crossed the border, believe it or not, it's not THAT hard to sneak something in. Especially if you're determined to. See, everything about enforcing border security, illegals and that, should be something constant, you know. IMO, what's the good of enforcing things like that for, say, a few months or years after such an incident? It should be all the time.
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It's not so much what's cover over the border as WHO. Though it's not like it takes someone from outside the country to destroy a building.
 
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