Entertaining the Devil in Connecticut

Entertaining the Devil in Connecticut

      There have been several cases of witch hunts throughout history, even here in the U.S. During the 1600s, there were several cases of witch hunts, several trials where women and men were convicted of performing sorcery and black magic, and many were sentenced to death. Most if not all cases were bizarre, but the reason why many witches were hung was because people were looking for scapegoats, as the new settlers in New England were suffering from epidemics, natural disasters, and Indian attacks. All of these stresses forced people to take their anger out on someone, and they chose the "witches". This is very similar to what the people today in Connecticut and other parts of the United States, this time people are feeling the stress of cultural change and new technology, and they fear the government for being the cause of this change and feel that the government's mysterious ways are evil and threatening.

      People have looked for scapegoats throughout history when they come into times of stress, for example during the Black Death people sought out to destroy different groups of people who thought that caused the plague, like Jews and witches. There are several parallels between now and back then, there is terrorism in place of Indian attacks, there is the failing economy as the epidemic, and there are still several natural disasters not only in the U.S but also throughout the world, the biggest and most recent one being the earthquakes in Japan and Haiti. All of these events could cause the blame to fall on something, and according to the author, it is now the U.S government, which could make sense, as he makes a point of the bombing of Oklahoma City. This article does not directly answer my essential question, but it does bring an interesting point of view towards it, although the government today does not really associate with magic and sorcery the witches did, it does bring out an interesting point in human nature, and also in the history of magic. It shows that people fear what they do not understand, and when change comes and new ideas of things arrive, people assume the worst of turn and put the blame on something or someone.

      After reading this article, the question that I have is, are there any other examples of this throughout history? Although this article also puts into perspective a new view of magic today, are there any other examples of this happening (other than obviously the witch trials that occurred in New England during the 1600s)?

Citation: 
Ryan, Bill. "Entertaining the Devil in Connecticut." The New York Times. N.p., 16 July 1995. Web. 26 Feb. 2012. <http://www.nytimes.com/1995/07/16/nyregion/
entertaining-the-devil-in-connecticut.html?src=pm>.