Burning Witches: What's the Point?
There is a modus operandi that spurs a moral panic. But what is a moral panic? A moral panic is a social spreading of fear that causes people to believe an evil threatens their society’s well-being. Whether a natural phenomenon or a consequence of the human condition, a moral panic always begins with specific social actors: Compelling characters invoke “folk devils” who cause mass fear. (Bonn, 2015) These people are our law enforcement, media, politicians, and finally, the public. First, there is a discovery of some horror that provokes a belief in the boogeyman. This boogeyman can be anything from razor blades hidden in children’s Halloween candy to baby sacrifices by Satanists. The story is always extraordinary, hard to believe, and indeed, that is because they are often made up.
Nevertheless, such delectably wicked ideas inevitably lead to a spike in cases because people see what they want to see. Inflated media reports promise danger. A theory postulates five things believed to determine what makes it to our nightly news: 1) the person who owns the network, 2) the advertisers who fund it, 3) the outlets sourcing, 4) flak, i.e., strong criticism from influential people, and 5.) dictations of current fear ideology. But then, as if waking from a nightmare, logic bleeds through the stupor. No longer satisfying to the masses, the problems fade away, blending into the corpus of other past atrocities. Looking back, we are aghast; the whole thing is preposterous. As far as moral panics go, there is hardly a better example than the Salem Witch Trials.
Witches are women. But these particular women have fallen from grace and are now pure evil. Clever, immoral, and soulless, these females have the potential to change the paradigm or, at least, challenge it, and they could be any one of us. Now, changes to the norm scare certain people--People who have something to lose. Psychology tells us that fear fogs our minds; Under stress, our perceptions distort, compelling us to be on guard, vigilant for things that could cause us harm. These attributes of fear meant to keep us safe sometimes go wrong. The very biological safeguards intended to protect us instead concoct mass paranoia. Panics snowball, growing by their own momentum of misconstrued events, false accusations, and fake news, and the aspects combine to culminate in our greatest inhumanity and miscarriages of justice.
In the witch trials, the most critical element was the church’s power that issued dominant control over Salem’s community. As could be expected, there were significant stresses and strife attached to making life in a new land. For instance, Salem lived under constant threat of attack by the native people whose land they stole. This perpetual danger alone kept communities on edge, priming their minds with hyper-vigilance. Famines punished settlers when their ignorance of farming new lands resulted in crop failures. Famines presage malnutrition, which in turn spawns disease. But rather than view circumstances rationally, these people turned to supernatural reasonings when the church convinced them that God was punishing them for moral missteps. Why? Three phenomena [explain the human condition]—hindsight bias, overconfidence, and our tendency to perceive patterns in random events—illustrate why we cannot rely solely on intuition and common sense.” (Chomsky, 2018) To put it simply, we are dopes who do not think straight, and fear fills the pews on Sunday morning. Natural disasters and self-derived hardships become forces of God’s will. Patriarchal views are also handed down by the church. The Bible itself damns women as lustful, hard to control, and unworthy individuals. The essential ingredients in Salem were dogma, caste systems, and superstitious nonsense. Martha Stewart couldn’t make a more perfect moral panic recipe. Salem was cooking up a batch of horror.
It’s a good thing we don’t have to worry about silly things like witches today. However, moral panics, on the other hand, are still very much a part of the menu. For instance, the 1980s provided another example. The Vietnam War had just ended, and many women were entering the job market, requiring a change in family life. Notice this is another moment of societal change involving the roles of women. Perhaps to some public portions, this change was like Salem, a perceived threat to the church’s teachings. Children were separated from their mothers and entrusted to daycares for the first time. Those who feel threatened then ignite a belief that these changes will menace society. Any opinion of a detriment to the status quo’s tilt becomes political and cultural stresses. The people must identify a boogeyman. This time daycares serve as the demon and get blamed in a host of far-fetched molestation allegations by sketchy individuals. Interestingly, this wave of child molestation cases crashed onto the nightly news just after the government introduced the Mondale Act-- an act that provided a boon of tax funding to child protection agencies. Though, I’m sure there is no connection.
Identical to the witch trials, the daycare cases stemmed from a mixture of Christain’s cultural beliefs and unreliable (and even coached) child testimony. Also, in-step with the witch trials, the first daycare allegations stemmed from incredible stories that became more streamlined and uniform as time went by. This assimilation is a known phenomenon called “socially cued symptom enactments,” which speaks of socially instigated twinning stories by “victims.” We must remember that “certain types of behaviors and actions are “rational” not because they are logical... or serve our self-interest, but because they fulfill... a broader goal, meet... a higher moral standard, or serve [our political] purposes.” (Pham) To put it simply, some people will report because they believe making up a story supports a cause to fight evil, some because they want attention, others just want to profit from the claims whether or not they are true. The point is that these are lies spurned by moral outrage and righteous indignity that keep the narrative going by being immoral and unethical. By reigning in the accusations that exceed what even the most beguiled believers can swallow, the powers that be keep the figment alive a bit longer.
Daycares stood accused of raping children with knives even though the children alleging the abuse incurred no wounds. Other fantastic stories told of magic rooms and children tied naked to trees in the middle of the day on a well-traveled street, testimony that sounds ridiculous to us today. Realize, though, these tall tales about the daycares eerily resemble the Salem children’s claims of visions, mind-reading, and superhuman strength. As cases piled up against the daycare, social pressure mounted, and stigma accrued. If it involved a daycare, any evidence, no matter how ridiculous, became a sacred truth. Salem’s term “sacred truth” meant that contradicting the girls was a blasphemy crime punishable by hanging the blasphemer. My point is that rules like this don’t exactly instill a drive for justice.
While many people suffer and even face atrocities during moral panics, others see an immense benefit. Consider in the Salem Trials a “witch” burned without confessing could pass her property on to her family. However, if she pleaded guilty, she was far more likely to be shown mercy and live. Of course, confessing meant she was required to surrender her property to the government. To put it another way, if you wanted to live, you paid a ransom: a sacrifice of your property bought you your life. Ironically, in the first daycare case, a similar happening occurs when less than a month after the child’s allegations, the mentally unstable parent places a lien on the uninvolved daycare owner’s property. (The business owner, a woman, paid $50,000 to have the claim removed only to have insurance pay that same parent another $2 million again later.)
Moral panics may stem from organic and natural occurrences, but they attach to social and political happenings. The suggestion of a monster in our midst begins the moral dissonance. Soon, ambition finds footing, and the situation becomes a sinister way to benefit. When people stoop to exploiting others for political and monetary profits, it causes conspiracy theories of a more orchestrated explanation. It certainly stands to reason that influential people might try to incite a moral panic if it means their betterment. “Deep culture” and mythological signification can, using the schema proposed here, be understood as practical accomplishments—rhetorical responses to particular situations that, when performed successfully, legitimate violence and other forms of domination,” which in these cases serve to maintain the status quo. (Reed, 2015)
“The task of propaganda, Hitler argued, was to bring certain subjects to the attention of the masses. Propaganda should be simple, concentrating on a few essentials, which then had to be repeated many times, with emphasis on such emotional elements as love and hatred. Hitler concluded that through the continuity and uniformity of its application, propaganda would lead to results “that are almost beyond our understanding.”
None of us are ever going to be perfect but we can learn to think critically.
- Note people’s assumptions and values.
- What perspective or bias underlies their argument?
- Evaluate evidence. Is it anecdotal? What is their source? Is it based on statistics and informative experiments?
- Assess conclusions. Are there any alternative explanations
And remember! The study of psychology can help teach you how to ask and answer important questions—how to think critically as you evaluate competing ideas and claims. You don't need a class you only need to read a book or two.
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