| The Witch Hunt Phenomenon, by Stephen DeVoy |
Americans look back at the Salem Witch trials as an aberration within American history perpetrated by twisted primitives crouched on the edge of a vast wilderness. The phenomenon of persecution and official abuse of power, as happened in Salem in the 1690s, is something that has existed throughout human history. The hysteria of right-wing Americans against "terrorists" is identical in every import way to what happened in Salem.
In both Salem and Bush's America, the desire to enforce obedience at a difficult time manifested itself in open persecution, not so much to destroy the object of hate (e.g. witches and then terrorists), but to silence the average person into compliance. As in the time of the Salem Witch trials, the Bush age of hysteria has been exploited by many petty people to even scores that were perceived to need to be evened (in the most part by delusional sociopaths).
My ex-wife, a refugee from Vietnam, experienced the same when Saigon fell to the communists. A period of persecution arose and in this atmosphere hateful sociopaths saw an opportunity to use the situation to their own ends my means of denouncing their enemies, those they begrudged, and even those of whom they were envious. The accused were quickly persecuted, often sent to reeducation camps, and often ruined.
Nazi Germany saw the same phenomenon. In the hysteria whipped up by Hitler, it was easy to turn the rabid state upon one's foes. Quickly, no one knew who could be trusted and who could not be trusted. This drove the vast majority into silence.
This is what happened within the United States right after the attacks of 9/11/2001. I know because I was one of the people singled out for harassment by a psychotic woman with whom I worked who was motivated by self interest in her desire to stop my political work. She recruited a former love interest of mine who had been stalking me and the two, together, whipped up a torment of harassment and persecution, which involved false accusations sent to the FBI and the Secret Service, as well as slanderous innuendo. Libelous articles were published about me declaring me to be a terrorist. The only reason the government never dragged me in is that the two prime instigators (who, as people, are not unlike the false accusers of colonial Salem) were working for the government, one as a defense contractor with personal contacts in the FBI and the other as an employee of the Defense Intelligence Agency. The government knew full well the that harassment was baseless but condoned it because it was useful.
However, many have fared much worse than myself. We don't even know how many Muslim men have been rounded up in the United States and imprisoned without charges. We do know that those held by the U.S. under no charges have been tortured and some have been killed. We do know that one completely innocent Sherman Austin, webmaster of a website dissenting from the government, was imprisoned on false charges for nothing more than hosting a website. Various green activists and animal rights activists have been framed and imprisoned on the west coast. All of this and much more has been done under the accusation of "terrorist", which history will see with the same contempt as we now see the accusation of "witch."
They say history repeats. Indeed history does repeat. Whenever hysteria surfaces, the most vile of society spring up to persecute and the state condones that persecution because it is helpful in carrying out the greater evil goal of silencing the majority while the state commits its crimes against humanity.
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