The Dangers of Witch Hunting

This documentary focuses on a specific witch trial in the 17th century that clearly illustrates how fear can completely erase every trace of critical thinking from a persons mind. Even if a threat is nonexistent, enough terror can cause the average person to turn on their neighbor. It also shows how denouncing your fellow man today could lead directly to the day when you are the one being denounced, and how our own fears can be used against us by greedy individuals for political gain.

At the end the narrator compares the irrational fear of witches to our modern day boogey men. I may be new, but I know I don't need to tell the good people of ATS that we have plenty of those.

I find it both terrifying and fascinating that even with our advanced technology and understanding of science, when it comes to that base, primal fear that can be brought out in all of us, we may be no better than our ancestors from the 1600s. Fear has a way of blinding even the most intelligent people, which makes it the most affective tool for manipulating people and gaining control.

The most interesting lesson I see in this story is how letting other innocents be condemned could lead to your own demise later.

These trials only stopped a few centuries back and I wonder if human nature has actually changed all that much. If we're still the same in this aspect, our advanced technology, specifically in weapons, makes this flaw in our species even more worrying.

What would a witch hunt look like today? Are we already seeing them? How would we know?


10-2014 by JessicaRabbitTx because: (no reason given)

a reply to: JessicaRabbitTx

I believe we still see witch hunts today, they are only wider based and more "justified" by what ever the "threat of the day" is.
And for whatever the current agenda op goal is at the time.

Up until the middle of the 20th century all that was required (at least in my state) were two witnesses to commit a person to a state mental hospital. The undersigned could be a spouse and their lover, a clergy and a congregation member, anyone with an axe to grind, an agenda or bank account to fill. Unmarked cemeteries abound with the remains of those committed for offenses as minor as PTSD or menopause. These people were societies' throw-ways and many were likely subjected to medical experimentation, hence the prevalence of unmarked graves. I suspect the same holds true for the state schools that used to house orphans.

Only a fool would try witch hunting. What if you were turned into a newt? Not so funny now is it. Or a frog.
Actually I think I saw a thread where people in Africa were being burnt alive for practicing witchcraft but these people had done some bad things. So it still happens.

Well, the obvious situation right now is the irrational fear of ebola. It's causing people to literally froth at the mouth. Thirty years ago, it was AIDS, now it's ebola.

Another example is the fear of Muslims (it used to be communists). And yet another is fear/hatred of gays (used to be blacks - still is in some areas). So yeah, we have plenty of "witch hunting" going on today.

a reply to: grumpy64

You just referenced my favorite movie

If anyone actually watches let me know. Because its about one trial in particular its more like a story than a documentary and very entertaining.

I think the people were so afraid that they took a "better safe than sorry" approach, which is very interesting because I know that we use that phrase a lot today when discussing how to handle modern day fears.

a reply to: JessicaRabbitTx

I'll watch it when I have a minute. But I did watch "The Crucible" with my daughter the other day. It's a fictional story based on the actual witch trials, showing how someone manipulated the public's fears to punish those she didn't like. Creepy how everyone just fell for it, hook, line and sinker.

a reply to: kaylaluv

I remember reading the crucible and watching the play in school. I always loved it.
I hadn't ever heard anything about the trials that took place outside of America, which made this story more interesting to me.

originally posted by: JessicaRabbitTx
At the end the narrator compares the irrational fear of witches to our modern day boogey men. I may be new, but I know I don't need to tell the good people of ATS that we have plenty of those.

I find it both terrifying and fascinating that even with our advanced technology and understanding of science, when it comes to that base, primal fear that can be brought out in all of us, we may be no better than our ancestors from the 1600s. Fear has a way of blinding even the most intelligent people, which makes it the most affective tool for manipulating people and gaining control.

What is a fascination is that even with our advanced technology and understanding of science folk still practice the necromancy. Why do they do it? Cause its real. Although I like to think witches are no longer burnt at the stake for reasons other than our advanced technology and scientific understanding it still a thing that should be respected if not feared.

But your right. Fear is a way of binding people. That's why great efforts have been made to get folks afraid of calling a spade a spade, a witch a witch. Heck every body knows its just a bunch of hags out in the woods brewing a pot right? Well not nearly close to the truth.

meanwhile, in the third world...

education.nationalgeographic.com...

"Belief in witchcraft is widespread. A 2005 poll of Canadians and people from the United Kingdom found that 13 percent believed in witches. For Americans, that number was even higher: 21 percent.
Most people do not believe in magical witches, of course. Sometimes, though, normally logical people blame supernatural powers for their misfortune.
Today, witch trials occur all over the world. Organizations like the United Nations and Stepping Stones Nigeria have found that the number of witch trials around the world is increasing. They are almost always violent, and sometimes they are deadly."

we all like to think that' we're *special*, and when bad things happen to us, it must be some enemy ruining things. can't be random, and certainly not our fault. must be those witches / Jews / Christians / college kids / pesky little beavers...