Analysis Of The Experiences That Lead Up To Witch Craze
Witch craze has been going on throughout history dating back to the 1300's, that involved the search for and persecution of those performing witchcraft. But over time, the term witch hunt still has a profound meaning in a more metaphorical sense that can be found in our recent history as well. Witch hunts are a single-minded and uncompromising campaign against a particular group of people who are seen as having unacceptable views or behaviors. These people are blamed and mistreated for things that most people may not understand or agree with. These historic instances of witch hunts have circumstances with similar patterns of behavior and commonalities among them. There are many experiences that lead up to witch hunts such as traumatic experiences, fear, stereotypes and generalizations.
The first kind of circumstance that commonly leads to witch hunts are traumatic experiences that take place. A good example of this is seen in the book, The Crucible, where witch hunts took place in the late 1600s, and innocent villagers are on trial for witchcraft. Reverend Parris found his daughter, his niece, and the other girls of Salem dancing around in the woods, 'conquering spirits', and then his daughter had fallen into a deep sleep and he believed that witchcraft was to blame. Unfortunately, the girls were overwhelmed by the emotional trauma of being discovered by Parris and withdraw into themselves to avoid facing the consequences of their actions. The girls knew that Parris was going to call them out on conquering spirits, and in sheer panic and to save themselves they started to accuse the people of the town that they disliked or had a grudge against to take the heat off themselves. The Salem Witch trials ended with multiple hangings of the falsely accused and were the most famous example of witch hunts based on trauma and a deeply disturbing experience that causes the accusations and rumors to spiral out of control.
The second metaphorical example of a traumatic experience leading up to witch craze, can be closely compared to the actions in The Crucible, and that is the bombing of Pearl Harbor. On December 7, 1941, just hours after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the FBI rounded-up 1,291 Japanese community and religious leaders, arresting them without evidence and freezing their assets. https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/japanese-american-relocation In response to the bombing of Pearl Harbor by the Japanese, America's first response was paranoia and anger. This traumatic event led to American's believing that Japanese spies were scoping out the American military and their key operations pertaining to the war. Also, there was widespread public belief that people of Japanese descent living in Hawaii helped in planning the attack by providing information to their country. The Americans were in such shock after the surprise bombing on their country and the attack on their homeland, that their immediate response was to react with caution and lock up all Japanese and assume their guilt.
Secondly, fear is another commonly seen experience that leads to witch hunts. An example of this was again the bombing of Pearl Harbor. “Military zones were created in California, Washington and Oregon; the states with a large population of Japanese Americans. Roosevelt’s executive order commanded the relocation of Americans of Japanese ancestry. Executive Order 9066 affected the lives of about 117,000 people and the majority of those were American citizens. Canada soon followed, relocating 21,000 of its Japanese residents from its west coast. Mexico eventually joined this relocation effort as well as other Spanish countries, as 2,264 more people of Japanese descent were removed from Peru, Brazil, Chile and Argentina to the United States.” https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/japanese-american-relocation Like the events at the Salam Witch trials, the Japanese Internment movement was fueled by mass paranoia, false accusations, and widespread fear. A driving force of fear and prejudice behavior led to the imprisonment of innocent people, both in the Salem trials and the Japanese Internment movement.
The second example of fear leading to witch hunts in our country's history, was the Joseph McCarthy Trials. In the years following the Second World War, the most important attribute for an American was to demonstrate loyalty, and the fear of the Russian infiltration on our government and the widespread fear of communism. President Harry S. Truman signed an Executive Order on March 21, 1947, that required all federal civil service employees to undergo loyalty screenings. The purpose was to find any civil servants that may have been willing or planning to alter the United States government by unconstitutional means. For the President, he wanted to ensure that no communist spies were working for the US government. Any person or group that spoke out against the US government or capitalism became a communist, fascist, or anarchist in the court of public opinion. The McCarthy Hearings were referred to as 'witch-hunts' because of their similarity to the Salem Witch trials. Senator Joseph McCarthy, a well-respected U.S. Senator, was able to influence the American people and get them to believe his allegations against hundreds of politicians, as well as many famous figures in Hollywood. Widely covered in the media, these claims were never substantiated and in the end he wasn’t able to bring forth enough evidence of treason, but his accusations went on long enough that he was able to force the American people to accuse anyone that McCarthy claimed was guilty. McCarthy struck fear in the people due to the 'guilty until you confess' attitude which ruled the courts, similar to the Salem Witch Trials.
Lastly, stereotypes and generalizations are another experience that commonly leads to witch hunts. The first example of this is the Lavender Scare. In 1950, homosexuality was classified as a mental disorder that could be reversed through electro-shock therapy. In many states, sex acts between two men or two women was illegal. Individuals who were caught having sex with members of their same gender could be arrested, charged, and imprisoned. Many people viewed gay men and women as degenerates, sexual perverts, and pedophiles. It was also believed that gay men and women were on a quest to convert the young to their perceived subversive way of life. The Government thought that homosexuals were more susceptible to being blackmailed and that the Communist party used their sexual orientation to extort them for information. Therefore, this led the general public to be very uneasy with this lifestyle, which led to stereotyping and linking “Communists and Queers” in public rhetoric.
The second example where this was seen in our recent history, was the stereotyping of Middle Easterners immediately following the 09/11 attacks on America. When our country was attacked on September 11, 2001, the fear and panic was so overwhelming that many people in this country assumed that all Muslims and all Middle Easterners were terrorists and were the enemy. We couldn’t see past the violent acts that were done by one group of terrorists, we just wanted to stop terrorist attacks from ever happening again and wanted to put a travel ban on all Muslims from entering American soil. Based solely on race and ethnic background was reason enough to seek these harmful people out and perform witch hunts in order to keep the public calm and at ease. When comparing the 09/11 attacks to the Salem Witch Hunts, “It just makes you think there could be more of them. Anyone could be taken by the devil's influence, just like anyone could be a communist or a terrorist, and there's no way to know if the enemy is fully gone.” And furthermore, these witch hunts are exaggerated by “the federal government telling us that we are still in a state of emergency, 15 years after the 09/11.” The levels of stereotyping and generalizing was only elevated by propaganda from our leaders, social media, and the constant fear that the American people had of any future terrorist attacks. The majority was believed to hate and assume that there were always more “witches” we needed to find, and they are all to blame even if most Middle Eastern people in America were not really the enemy.
In conclusion, there are many similar experiences and common patterns of behavior that lead up to witch hunts that have taken place for hundreds of years. We have seen that traumatic experiences, fear, stereotypes and generalizations are all reasons that lead influential people to persuade the majority to make widespread accusations, to blame, and to hate the unpopular and misunderstood in our history.
