The Crucible in Relation to Modern Day Events Essay Example
Spiral of Silence
In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, characters service an incompetent government system based on mob mentality rather than reliable evidence. One is reminded of Adolf Hitler’s quote, “If you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough, it will be believed.” The community works to solve the problem of ridding the town of witches, but the girls, knowing that no witches exist in the town, continue to make further accusations of witchcraft. The girls in the group may have suffered from the spiral of silence or the process by which one opinion becomes dominant as those who perceive their opinion to be in the minority do not speak up because they fear isolation from society or, in this case, their friends and the consequences of telling the truth. The widespread chaos brought on by illegitimate witch trials in The Crucible was able to continue due to the spiral of silence, not unlike more recent cases such as Warren Jeffs’ ability to acquire 78 wives, many of them minors and the subversion of his community, the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS). Although now passed, the idea of the end of the world on December 21, 2012 (December 23, 2012 for the FLDS) brought on similar distress that resulted in groups acting in ways they would usually not, fueled by a leader, such as Warren Jeffs, who was rarely questioned. Warren Jeffs is a well know polygamist with 78 wives who has multiple sexual abuse charges against him and is currently serving a life sentence for them. His position in the community was one of power as the pastor of the church, although he has accusations against him of brainwashing his congregation into believing that the abuse was God's will. Unfortunately, the abuse was not his only lie. As rumors of the end of the world circulated and became mainstream “knowledge,” Jeffs too was swept up by the idea, only he had his own version. God, rather than the Mayans, supported his claim and he set the date for
In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, characters service an incompetent government system based on mob mentality rather than reliable evidence. One is reminded of Adolf Hitler’s quote, “If you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough, it will be believed.” The community works to solve the problem of ridding the town of witches, but the girls, knowing that no witches exist in the town, continue to make further accusations of witchcraft. The girls in the group may have suffered from the spiral of silence or the process by which one opinion becomes dominant as those who perceive their opinion to be in the minority do not speak up because they fear isolation from society or, in this case, their friends and the consequences of telling the truth. The widespread chaos brought on by illegitimate witch trials in The Crucible was able to continue due to the spiral of silence, not unlike more recent cases such as Warren Jeffs’ ability to acquire 78 wives, many of them minors and the subversion of his community, the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS). Although now passed, the idea of the end of the world on December 21, 2012 (December 23, 2012 for the FLDS) brought on similar distress that resulted in groups acting in ways they would usually not, fueled by a leader, such as Warren Jeffs, who was rarely questioned. Warren Jeffs is a well know polygamist with 78 wives who has multiple sexual abuse charges against him and is currently serving a life sentence for them. His position in the community was one of power as the pastor of the church, although he has accusations against him of brainwashing his congregation into believing that the abuse was God's will. Unfortunately, the abuse was not his only lie. As rumors of the end of the world circulated and became mainstream “knowledge,” Jeffs too was swept up by the idea, only he had his own version. God, rather than the Mayans, supported his claim and he set the date for