Hysterias In The Crucible

"Increasingly fed by a moral and political hysteria, warlike values produce and endorse shared fears as the primary register of social relations." - Henry Giroux
Where man has emotion that, along with conspiracies, that usually formulates within a collective population and has the potential to become mass panic, that in time becomes hysteria. With the occurrences of hysterias, individuals spasmodically act under the influence of propaganda, a figure of sorts, and various factors that may persuade mentalities based upon fears relevant to an event within a set period of time. The influence regarding the attraction to an event and or figure is more often than not set by how reasonably information is distributed and informed to an individual. If
done with the necessary execution, then the hysteria likely expands rapidly throughout a nation. Ultimately, hysterias are formulated with time, interactions, and influence and with that mind; history would present many events that prove how the hysterias could lead a population to chaos. One event, in regards that proved how threatening hysterias could affect society would be the Salem Witch Trials.
In 1692, in Salem, Massachusetts, infamy would begin with a group of younger gals dancing within a forest and a Reverend witnessed what they were doing and at that time, it was sinful as the society was severe in what was allowed to be done within their population and as the Reverend witnessed the acts, he interrupted their frolicking and would inform the village that they were possibly corrupted by witches or in some cases, the Devil itself. As the village received that information, the news was precipitously known and regarded due to how lethal it was potentially to not only village, rather, the citizens themselves. "...May have been influenced by the fact that [...] what cause this extraordinary outbreak?" – (Davis) With the idea of ordeal being inevitable, aspects of what had occurred during the ordeal would be detailed thanks to author Arthur Miller who created one of his famous plays known as, “The Crucible” which elaborated upon what had occurred during the time period in which details were key in preserving any logic that was seemingly opted away due to certain characters within the story. With that, it would lead towards a series of illogical accusations that could be proven to other individuals if the individuals who is accusing another individual that they can see a spectral figure of sorts. A quote from “The Crucible” that relates to this idea was when Reverend Hale claimed, “This is a strange time, Mister. No man may longer doubt the powers of the dark are gathered in monstrous attack upon this village. There is too much evidence now to deny it.” The time in which he speaks that was before he had realized how absurd the village reacts to such accusations when exclaimed. Following the accusations, those accused were set upon trial would answer a slight series of questions, those of which featured the question that asked if one were to be a
Witch or not. Should an individual say “No.” then they would be unjustifiably hung whereas saying “Yes.” would ultimately let them survive. This seemed to be a common trend throughout that period and in the hysteria’s conclusion, individuals would become less convinced of the reasoning regarding the trials. With that, the ordeals would cease to continue. A couple centuries later, another notable hysteria would occur, one of which is arguably the most impactful in modern history. It was known as McCarthyism. "I have here in my hand a list of 205 - a list of names that were known to be Secretary of State as being members of the Communist Party, and who nevertheless are still working and shaping policy of the State Department." – (Price) The preceding dialogue was a quote said by Joseph McCarthy, a man who from 1950 to 1954 had led a campaign that consisted of accusing members of the United States’ government of being within the Communist regime. Many who were accused were blacklisted and were relinquished from their jobs. “But as the anti-Communist crusade settled in, and showed signs of becoming the permanent derangement of the American psyche, a kind of mystery began to emerge from its melodramas and comedies.” – (Miller) The nation was being prejudiced to what McCarthy was enacting and without their complete attention, they did not realize that McCarthy did not have reliable resources to how or why the government officials were supposedly Communists, the primary influence was the “Red Scare” or the fear of Communism raising to conquer nations including the United States. “Communism became a national obsession. Movies, books, TV and radio shows, comic books, celebrities, and politicians all warned about the "Red menace." Miss America contestants were asked for their views on Karl Marx, Communism's founder. For a while, the Cincinnati Reds baseball team changed its name to the Redlegs.” – (Price) With the population’s fear of Communism, Joseph McCarthy seemingly had premiere influence, however, when challenged after accusing members of the U.S. Army of being Communist, it was then, he had to face the penalties of what he had done. Soon there after, individuals would lose interest into his cause, with that, McCarthy would then fade into slight obscurity and would terminate due to excessive beverage consumption. The hysteria of the Black List would diminish in parallel; however, the term of McCarthyism has become a term that is practically identical to hysteria in a sense that a feature of hysteria corresponds with accusations becoming populated ordeals which is the essence of what McCarthyism exemplifies. Another hysteria that occurred more recently in a sense of time was one that consisted of what the Earth’s fate would present itself to be at the dawn of a new millennium, the Y2K Bug Hysteria. “The Y2K bug was a computer flaw, or bug, that may have caused problems when dealing with dates beyond December 31, 1999. The flaw, faced by computer programmers and users all over the world on January 1, 2000, [...]” – (Sue) Preceding the year 2000, it was unknown to what was going to occur regarding technology and the fate of World in the multiple perspectives of various nations. When the Y2K hysteria was brought among nations through media, it was a moment where there had to be a collaborative within those forces. “Y2K was both a software and hardware problem. Software refers to the electronic programs used to tell the computer what to do. Hardware is the machinery of the computer itself.” – (Sue) Regarding that, initiatives based upon upgrading technology was first and foremost for international superpowers, with that, over $300 Billion was spent in funding the process. During the funding process, in of October 1998, President Bill Clinton signed the Year 2000 Information and Readiness Disclosure Act, which was designed to encourage American companies to share information by offering them limited liability protection for sharing information, products, methods, and practices. The European Commission issued reports ordering to solve any excess tribulations within the hysteria that could have possibly intensified to issue further. There would be a meeting within the United Nations in December of 1998; it consisted of being the first meeting regarding Y2K in order to establish crisis-management efforts, share information, and to the International Y2K Cooperation Center in Washington D.C. Ultimately, the collective effort was successful. “In the end, there were very few problems. A nuclear energy facility in Ishikawa, Japan, had some of its radiation equipment fail, but backup facilities ensured there was no threat to the public. The U.S. detected missile launches in Russia and attributed that to the Y2K bug. But the missile launches were planned ahead of time as part of Russia’s conflict in its republic of Chechnya. There was no computer malfunction.” – (Sue) The occurrences of Y2K regarding technology falling under cataclysmic deconstructions did not necessarily occur or at least not how most had interpreted which ultimately was benefit not only due it not occurring, rather, the fact that it led to technological upgrades which helped the United States’ government structure recover after the occurrences of 9/11, by that, the United States leaped towards instantaneous recovery. Those paradigms were only few in that regard, however, for there are far more to establish when in regards to such topic. Overall, the hysterias highlighted have had their own significant impacts upon society and nations due to their basis upon fears within the population that ultimately taught individuals not accuse unjustifiably if a mass opinion ensues. By that, there should be opinions based upon one’s own ethics. An example is how individuals during the Salem Witch Trials did not proclaim evidence proper enough to justify the reason behind accusing an individual; rather, they derived their evidence and influence from the overall opinion within the village’s composition. McCarthyism would do the same as when Joseph McCarthy accused individuals within the United States’ government, he was capable to influence the population due to his exploits regarding the “Red Scare” and the population would respond thusly. Once citizens realized the absurdities behind McCarthy’s actions, they refused to continue following him and ultimately, his injustice haunted him. The third featured hysteria, the Y2K Bug, was one that did not have an influential Leader in particular, rather, multiple nations combating against that one cause. Therefore, the hysteria was not as prominent as the other featured hysterias as far as Leadership was concerned, however, it arguably ignited the most distress collectively. In conclusion, there is always a similar composition as far as hysterias are concerned relative to the fact that they are the essence of collective fear within a populace that more often than not manifests towards panic in ordeals which ultimately represents the vigilance or unawareness of the populace when inflicted with an issue of loftier proportions. “A good society is produced only by good individuals, just as truly as a majority in a presidential election is produced by the votes of single electors. Everybody can do something toward creating in his own environment kindly feelings rather than anger, reasonableness rather than hysteria, happiness rather than misery.” - Bertrand Russell