During the time that Arthur Miller created the Crucible, America was dealing with a very similar problem compared to the Salem witch trails. This problem was called McCarthyism, it was believed that a few hundred communists had entered the country, and they posed a threat to American safety. The accusations of communists in the country caused mass paranoia among the entire United States. Arthur Miller was one of them accused of being a communist and was trialed for it, which most likely lead to the creation of his play the Crucible. After the end of both events - the Salem witch hunt and McCarthyism - the effects afterward left devastating results and lingered for many more years to come.
The Red Scare Analysis During the rise of World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union had been brought into an alliance due to both of their desires to defeat Nazi, Germany. Although the Soviet Union’s aggressive, antidemocratic policy towards Europe created tensions even before World War II had ended. That being said, they tolerated each other as much as they could but weren’t exactly friends. The United States government was initially hostile to the Soviet leaders for their decision to take Russia out of World War I and was opposed to a state ideologically based on communism. The main conflict between them was their inability to agree about communism.
The Red Scare promoted fear of a potential rise in communism. A commonly believed idea to the hawks, known as the "Domino Theory”, supported this agitation. This notion states if one country transitions towards communism then the surrounding countries
During this time period, not long after the end of World War II, the USSR (Soviet Union) was on the rise, which led to the Cold War. The Cold War led to increased tension between the United States, and the Soviet Union due to competition and heavy conflict of interest. The involvement of the Soviet Union led to the dramatic fear of communism among the public after witnessing the horrific environment within the USSR. This helped develop McCarthyism, the idea of investigating, and accusing someone in power of being associated with communism. Joe McCarthy himself, the founder of his very ideal also gained much popularity within this time period due to many Americans fearing the rise of communist leaders and communism itself.
McCarthyism turned Americans against each other after WWII by claiming that Communists had infiltrated many areas of American life and government. In fact, “According to a local newspaper McCarthy dropped a bombshell: ‘The State Department is infested with Communists,” (para 3). In other words, this is the beginning of McCarthy turning Americans against each other. Paranoia started to spread through America which all this strongly affected Americans everyday life. McCarthyism was a result of American fear of communism in the 1950s.
The Chinese communist party gained much power after going after and attacking the Kuomintang and its anti communist policies into Taiwan. With the growth of the communist party’s power, the peasant and lower class experienced major influence that would change the course of their lives forever. Chinese peasants and the Chinese communist party between circa 1925 and circa 1950 had a relationship in which the party fostered and cared the state of the people. This created a sense of nationalism and pride for the peasants, while they were advocating social equality, and showing anti-Japanese sentiment. First of all, the Chinese communist party greatly influenced the peasant class in sparking and igniting a sense of nationalistic unity into the
Through the use secret organizations, these leaders were able to control the citizens under the government and earn their respect so they would not have to face consequences such as going to a concentration camp or death. By manipulating the youth, leaders were able to build a basis of respect from young kids for generations to come. Lastly, propaganda made leaders look more appealing and make other organizations look bad to get more votes for their party. In conclusion, totalitarian leaders were able to effectively gain and maintain power through the manipulation and termination of all opposing
The author says that perhaps many citizens may be drawn to Communist ideology if the social injustices become more prevalent, and urges the readers to look into the problems of Communist civilizations. This article is an example of how many felt during the Red Scare and Cold War in regards to communism. It shows that people felt a collapse
The Soviet Union and the U.S had contrasting views on the ideas of capitalism and communism, in a bid for world domination the Cold War broke out. A “red scare” swept the nation, with a fear of possible nuclear conflict Americans were paranoid that their own families were communist, spies for the Soviet government. Initiated by Senator Joseph McCarthy, McCarthyism, preached for anti-communism and the suppression of the Anti-communist party. Supporters of communism (reds) were ostracised akin to the patients in the ward being ostracised from society, ‘the outside world’ cementing their chances of ever assimilating into modern society. Government bodies and followers of McCarthyism suppressed freedom of speech and persecuted the “Reds”, in the same manner, that Nurse Ratched controlled the speech and actions within the confines of the ward, controlling her patients every word and move through her “cogs and wires”, anyone who dared to cause an uproar was either humiliated in ‘democratic’ group therapy sessions, given ‘electroshock therapy’ or
If one were to glance at Germany during September 1939 it would not unreasonable to assume that the country had become a totalitarian state under the Nazi Regime. That was not, however, the case. Nazi Germany, although projecting the appearance of all the efficiency and organisation of a totalitarian government was only successful in controlling some aspects of German life. The basic concept of the totalitarian state was best expressed in Mussolini's well-known phrase, "all within the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state". The state is the master, and the individual the servant.
Marx and Engels then follow with a series of rhetorical questions: “Where is the party in opposition that has not been decried as communistic by its opponents in power? Where is the opposition that has not been hurled back from the branding reproach of communism, against the more advanced opposition parties, as well as against its reactionary adversaries (1)?” Combined with the notion that holding power leads to corruption and immorality, the questions asked presents the reader with the impression that the communist party is being purposefully targeted by influential authorities. Marx and Engels further appeal to the emotions of their readers by adding that “The bourgeoisie, wherever it has got the upper hand, has put an end to all feudal, patriarchal, idyllic relations. It has… left remaining no other nexus between man and man than naked self-interest, than callous “cash payment”(4).”
Hannah Arendt one of the most influential scholars who defines Nazism as totalitarianism and describes totalitarianism as a novel form of government and domination (Arendt, 1953 : 303). Arendt explains how totalitarianism operates to transform the society into a total domination as follows, Wherever it rose to power, it developed entirely new political institutions and destroyed all social, legal and political institutions and destroyed all social, legal and political traditions of the country... totalitarian government always transformed classes into masses, supplanted the party system, not by one-party dictatorships, but by a mass movement, shifted the center of power from the army to the police, and established a foreign policy openly directed towards world domination (Arendt, 1953 : 303). Thus, according to Arendt, totalitarianism is “a chaotic, non-utilitarian, manically dynamic movement of destruction” (Canovan, 1999 : 26).
This kind of hysteria caused the Red Scare, which was a period that Americans thought communists were working to destroy America. This mass fear of communism ruined people’s lives and made them turn against their own family and friends. Joseph McCarthy played an
The threat of a world dominated by Communist governments by the
Probably the only country in the world that totally rejects globalization, North Korea, upon becoming a separate country in 1948 when the Korean peninsula was divided into two separate countries in the aftermath of WWII, has emerged today as the world’s most enduring isolated totalitarian socialist society in recent history, according to Freedom House. Trapped somewhere amid a medieval monarchy and a communist party-state, North Korea has been ruled under an iron fist doctrine for more than half a century by the dynastic succession Kim Il-sung, Kim Jong-Il and Kim Jong-un (hereinafter referred to as the Kims) still exhibiting many features of the typical Stalinist political system and bureaucratic regime, emphasizing the one man–centered
