The Crucible

As we all know, Arthur Miller recently passed away. I really enjoyed Death of a Salesman so I decided to read another of his plays, The Crucible. It's social commentary is amazing, man's ever-present witch hunt and how careful we must not be to fall into this trap yet again. Here's two great paragraphs (emphasis added on a few lines):

In the countries of the Communist ideology, all resistance of any import is linked to the totally malign capitalist succubi, and in America any man who is not reactionary in his views is open to the charge of alliance with the Red hell. Political opposition, thereby, is given an inhumane overlay which then justifies the abrogation of all normally applied customs of civilized intercourse. A political policy is equated with moral right and opposition to it with diabolical malevolence. Once such an equation is effectively made, society becomes a congerie of plots and counterplots, and the main role of the government changes from that of the arbiter to that of the scourge of God.

And...

Sex, sin, and the Devil were early linked, and so they continued to be in Salem, and are today. From all accounts there are no more puritanical mores in the world than those enforced by the Communists in Russia, where women's fashions, for instance, are as prudent and all-covering as any American Baptist would desire. ...And yet, in American eyes at least, there remains the conviction that the Russian attitude toward women is lascivious. It is the Devil working again, just as he is working within the Slav who is shocked at the very idea of a woman's disrobing herself in a burlesque show. Our opposites are always robed in sexual sin, and it is from this unconscious conviction that demonology gains both its attractive sensuality and its capacity to infuriate and frighten.

Let's modernize the language a little. Replace "Communists" with "Muslim extremists." Will we let civil liberties be eroded? Will we allow torture? Will we purge those who do not agree? Are we getting ready for another witch hunt? Or are we already on one? The witch hunt being politics in America and the polarizing Bush ideaology of Absolute Good [us] vs. Absolute evil [them ... and everyone who doesn't fully agree with and support us]. Something to think about.

Terrorism is of course different that the Cold War, as Condi Rice found out the hard way. I'm not saying that we don't need to go after terrorists that are out to kill us no matter what, rather I question the means by which we should do this...

That's all for tonight :)

Ø