Just saw "The Crucible" for the first time - wow. About the witch trials

[Skip Intro]

so errily like the US under bush. A bunch of scared people, believing something evil of one another - killing each other, fundy Christian to the max and intolerant of anything else. They even said, "You are with this court, or you are against it" or something very close to that.

Just so many prallels. "Confess and be spared or refuse and die" - the truth is but a speck of dust, insignificant to the views of God. And that's what it was all about, a group of people accusing other people of being in cahots with "the devil." And the town goes mad. True story, I think. Salem Witch Trials.

Anyway, anyone seen this flick, and how many times it resembled the current surge of atempted fundy dominance?

[ScreamingMeemie]

1. I saw it quite some time ago. With Winona Ryder, right?

I'll have to watch it again. Thanks for the reminder. yes it was based on the true story.

[Skip Intro]

2. Yeah, Winona Ryder was the one who got the ball rolling accusing one after

another of being a witch. In the trials, the accused were often asked to prove a negative, another parallel. They could only be saved by confessing to the lie. It struck me more than once, the similarities. Watch it again when you can. It was on HBO just a while ago.

[hobo_baggins]

3. I've never seen the movie, but i read the play...very upsetting

to think that people believed in such nonsense, and actually persecuted others because of it...and then to think that there are still people who think the same way today...makes me feel sorry for humanity.

[Kerrytravelers]

4. One of the favorites in this house.

Excellent acting, dialog, storytelling, subject matter... excellent and relevant.

[TreasonousBastard]

5. It should remind you of the US, since...

Miller wrote it in the 50s using the actual Salem trials as a reflection of the McCarthyism of the time.

Two of the key themes, Intolerance and Hysteria, are prevalent in both the theocratic worlds of the Puritans and of modern extremists.

[AmyDeLune]

6. Ergot poisoning is the latest theory...

Ergot is a fungus that attacks wheat-- when ingested it produces chills, hallucinations, and a sensation of pin-pricks over the body among other symptoms. The "Voices of the Dead" series on PBS had an excellent episode devoted to it as the probable root cause of the witch hunting frenzy.

Still scary how it took off and cost so many people their lives...

[ET Awful]

7. Ergot is also the root source of Dr. Hoffman's LSD 25 discovery.

Which was basically a synthetic ergot alkaloid.

[KittyWampus]

8. Turning people against each other as you see in The Crucible

That is what illegal surveillance and terrorism is about. Maintaining crowd control through fear and intimidation and for that to work you must turn people against each other.