Based upon your reading of Act One, discuss how the Puritans’ attitudes and beliefs may have caused or increased the outbreak of the witchcraft hysteria. Do people today still react to hysteria? What is one thing of recent times were hysteria has caused people to react in rash or illogical ways? (This post closes at midnight on March 5, 2009)
5 comments:
Yes, I believe people still react to hysteria today. One recent example of human hysteria is the recent presidenal campagining. For example, I can say personally that my father was very "up and armed" against one candiate during the run to the whtie house. His political view caused him to continuelly push his son away. My dad would panic over the "he said such and such...". Some other extreme cases were people planning to kill the candiates. This is wrong. Just because someone else does not agree with anothers views, they do not desevre death. This people acted tottally out of line and their rash behavior was, thank God, shut down. The political mania that swept the county brought out the best in some, but it ultimately revealed the worst in others.
-LS 4
The Puritans extreme beliefs in the bible and God made them react extremely to the witchcraft accusations. They believed they had to react that way because they really though the devil was real.
A good example of recent hysterias is outbreaks of diseases like bird flu or AIDS where people believe they have it because it's "spreading so fast"... They can believe others suggestions and it makes them think they have it.
The Puritans strong Christian ideals definitely helped to spread the witchcraft hysteria. The did not understand what was going on and they looked to the only thing they knew, which was their religion, for answers. I believe that people definitely still respond to hysteria today. The media is the main cause of this response. Most people are so heavily influenced by the media that as soon as the media reports something negative these people go crazy.
The Puritans relied so heavily on faith that they felt that it explained everything that happened in their lives. They had no science, no true investigative method, in searching for answers to mysteries. They only had the Bible and the Church to tell them the truth. To them, if something bad happened, surely the Devil was behind it. This reliance would undoubtedly lead to the witchcraft hysteria. Also, the Puritans believed it fine to tell on their neighbors. The fear the witchcraft hysteria inspired probably only increased this belief. If a Puritan was able to put suspicion on a neighbor, then suspicion could not be put on them. Hysteria certainly still exists today. For example, at the turn of the new millennium, the Y2K hysteria broke out. The fear that all computers would crash, severely affecting our world, caused many people to panic and act rashly.
ST-3
Because Puritans were so devout in their religion, they established a theocracy-- a government with fundamental principles guided by religion. This theocracy, like all others before and after, was inherently flawed and unstable. The Puritans' strong sense in religion-based law led to a witch hunt even though it was widely considered as (and still is) completely illogical. However, their religious beliefs made them vulnurable to clever, manipulative people who bent the rules in their favor to stay out of trouble and get what they wanted. In addition, the Puritan belief in witchcraft resulted in unfair trials with dire consequences whether the defendent was innocent or guilty. The Puritans' unconditional, unquestioned faith facilitated the cause and increase of the witchcraft trials because they were living in a turbulent world with no one to blame but the Indians, the Devil, and the witches. Even today, people not only react to hysteria but also fall victim to it. One example that occurred recently happened at the end of November in 2008. The Black Friday shopping disaster where crazed shoppers trampled a Wal-Mart employee to death is trajic evidence of modern hysteria.
BS-4
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