Salem Witch Trials
Three hundred years ago, the people in and around Salem, Massachusetts were engaged in the most massive witch hunt in American history. Authorities arrested over 150 suspects from more than two dozen towns, juries convicted twenty-eight, and nineteen were hanged (Aronson, 2003, p. 5). Contemporaries of the tragedy grappled with Satan’s role in the affair. Embracing the reality of witchcraft, many wondered if the Devil had not manipulated the people of New England into an orgy of destructive accusations. With the passing of the participants, researchers began to discount a satanic role and sought instead to assign blame to human agents for the tragedy.
In this paper we’ll discuss the events related to Salem Witch Trials and analyze historical, social and economic factors which contributed to those events. This research is aimed to prove that there were several reasons for persecution of Salem witches such as the desire of New England clergy to create true Christian church, the assertion of male power, superstitious beliefs of people and their inability to explain natural phenomena, and slow development in the field of medicine and incapability to determine causes of certain illnesses.
1. Historical Conditions
1.1. Early American Witchcraft Beliefs
In the seventeenth century people automatically assumed that their difficulties had a supernatural explanation. Floods, thunder, lightning, hailstorms, hurricanes, earthquakes, and comets were considered the harbingers of illness or destruction. Curses, spells, and the evil eye, most believed, could cause harm. Reports of strange dreams, visions, unseen voices, and prophecies circulated frequently (Aronson, 2003, p. 14). In England, practitioners of magic, men and women who sought to manipulate supernatural powers, abounded. Rich and poor alike consulted cunning folk to recover lost property, to discover a cure for illness, for help in finding missing family members or livestock, for advice in making personal and business decisions, or to identify witches.
New Englanders were engaged in fortunetelling; carefully read almanacs for astronomical data essential to the practice of astrology; read about and pursued the mysteries of alchemy; and a few boasted about their knowledge of the occult (Levack, 1987, p. 65).
1.2. Condemnation of witchcraft by Church
Religious and secular authorities in Catholic and Protestant regions grew concerned about an organized cult of witches. In 1484, Pope Innocent VIII issued a bull condemning witchcraft as heresy, the exercise of supernatural powers obtained through a demonic pact. Two years later, with papal approval, Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger, Dominican inquisitors, published the Malleus Maleficarum (The Hammer of Witches), the first major treatise on witchcraft beliefs (Levack, 1987, p. 11). By the early seventeenth century, works on witchcraft beliefs collectively offered a picture of a secret society of Devil-worshiping witches. Despite the efforts of writers like Margaret Murray, Montague Summers, and Jeffrey B. Russell to prove the existence of such cults, recent scholarship has demonstrated that no organized society of witches ever developed (Levack, 1987, p.12).
2. Profile of the Individuals Accused in Witchcraft
2.1 Gender
Women comprised almost eighty percent of those accused, making gender the most significant characteristic (Karlsen, 1987, p. 41). Moreover, approximately half of the males accused had direct involvement with accused women as friends, supporters, or kin (Karlsen, 1987, p. 47). Karlsen concluded that “most witches in New England were middle-aged or old women eligible for inheritances because they had no brothers or sons.” (1987, p. 117). As such, “they stood in the way of the orderly transmission of property from one generation of males to another.” (Karlsen, 1987, p.116). As land became more scarce in the more settled communities, men began to resent these women who had access to it through a demographic accident. The resentment was expressed in witchcraft accusations. “Whether as actual or potential inheritors of property, as healers or tavern-keepers or merchants,” Karlsen argued, “most accused witches were women who symbolized the obstacles to property and prosperity.” (1987, p. 217).
There are no completely satisfactory explanations for the preponderance of women among the accused. They obviously lived in a male-dominated culture. Men held political and religious power, controlled most property, and were the acknowledged heads of households (Levack, 1987, p. 48). Such circumstances make it tempting to view the accused as women who challenged “prescribed gender arrangements.” (Karlsen, 1987, p.119). This would make them the targets of a misogynist culture unwilling to tolerate females who were assertive, economically independent, or reluctant to defer to men; in short, individuals who had refused to accept their place in the traditional social order. There are, however, several problems with such an explanation.
Little evidence exists that English culture in the seventeenth century experienced “generalized” conflict or hostility between the sexes on either side of the Atlantic. In addition, although men filed most of the charges of witchcraft against women, many came from other women. These might have been women who shared a distrust or dislike of nonconforming women. More likely, such considerations played little or no role in their charges; women accused other women because they sought to punish those causing harm in their community. Finally, according to one survey of seventeenth-century material, “no colonist ever explicitly said why he or she saw witches as women.” (Karlsen, 1987, p.153). Perhaps the tendency to single out women reflected the seventeenth-century assumption that women were morally and intellectually inferior to men and as a consequence were less able to resist Satan.
2.2. Age and Wealth
Age and wealth were also significant factors in witchcraft accusations. The young seldom had to fear suspicion or formal charges. The overwhelming majority of the accused were over forty. While older women of all levels of New England society might be accused, a higher proportion came from the ranks of the poor, but not the very poor (Aronson, 2003, p. 79).
2.3 Reputation
Many of the accused witches shared unsavory reputations. Some were known for their contentious behavior (Aronson, 2003, p. 88). For example, during Elizabeth Morse’s trial, several witnesses testified to heated confrontations with her. Also, like Morse, the accused often revealed special healing powers. It had become commonplace by the late seventeenth century for people to suspect spiteful, poor, older women of being witches. A witness of a witch hunt in Chelmsford, England, contended that villagers had come to suspect “every old woman with a wrinkled face, a furred brow, a hairy lip, a squint eye, a squeaking voice, or a scolding tongue, a skull cap on her head, a spindle in her hand, a dog or cat by her side.” (Burr, 1914, p. 78).
3. Life in Salem Village
Salem is one of the larger towns along the Bay of Massachusetts. Englishmen came there in 1626 (Aronson, 2003, p. 57). For years many other Puritans migrated from the mother country. A group of settlers decided to set up west of Salem. This area was known as Salem Village. They felt they had not very much in common with Salem and the village made its own parish (Aronson, 2003, p. 58).
By 1692 the people of Salem Village had become familiar with a wide range of occult beliefs. They understood the powers of the Devil and that God chose, at times, to release this prince of evil on his chosen people. Their fears of witchcraft centered on the harm witches could cause the people and property dear to them. Should a disagreement with an older woman of low repute be followed by some mishap, most assumed that she was responsible for their hardships. Some responded with countermagic, countercharms, or white magic, but others chose a more cautious approach. They called upon physicians, for example, if the afflictions seemed the result of illness (Aronson, 2003, p. 123). Yet medical specialists inevitably concluded that no physical explanation sufficed, that witchcraft had produced the suffering. Complaints to judicial authorities followed. Officials arrested and examined the suspects, and neighbors provided evidence of the accused bad temper and attributed mishaps to their occult powers. The afflicted often charged that they had seen the “shape” of the suspect doing harm, and few would stand in their defense (Aronson, 2003, p. 140).
4. The Accusers
4.1. Cotton Mather
Cotton Mather was a respected clergyman in Puritan Massachusetts. He believed that certain people used magic to help the Devil do his evil work. Most colonial New Englanders felt this way. He did warn that the evidence against a person suspected of using black magic needed to be weighed carefully. There is always the chance that an innocent person might be accused of witchcraft (Levack, 1987, p. 76).
4.2. Samuel Parris
The people of Salem Village elected Rev. Samuel Parris to be the pastor. He was only 25 years old at this time in 1689 and had no experience as a clergyman (Levack, 1987, p. 133). Most of his sermons were about good and evil. Many of the people were fighting between themselves about the new generation of New Englanders and how they were less God fearing and thought that God might let bad deeds happen to punish them.
4.3. Accusations Begin
In 1692 Elizabeth Parris, Rev. Parris’s 9-year-old daughter, and Abigail Williams, his 12-year-old niece, started to have fits that were uncontrollable (Boyer and Nissenbaum, 1977, p. 63). Then 11 year old Anne Putman, daughter of Thomas Putman, Samuel Parris’s supporter, and her cousin 17 year old Mary Walcott started having the same type of fits.
The local Doctor, William Griggs, was brought in to decide just what was wrong with them. Because he could not find anything physicial wrong with them, he claimed it was the result of “bewitchment” (Boyer and Nissenbaum, 1977, p. 63). Now all the adults were pressuring the children to tell them who cast the spell on them. After a lot of pressure the first two girls named the witches that were tormenting them.
5. The Witches
5.1. Sarah Osburn, Sarah Good and Tituba
The first one accused of being a witch was Samuel Parris’s slave, Tituba. The second woman was Sarah Good, a woman of “ill repute” and the third woman was Sarah Osburn, who was old and always sick and did not go to church because of her bad health. On March 1, 1691, warrants were sent out for these three to be questioned by John Hathorne and Jonathan Corwin, the magistrates (Burr, 1914, p. 80). They questioned the three women in the Salem Village Meeting House.
Where Sarah Good had denied knowledge of the Devil and Sarah Osborne had made only a grudging admission of contact with the occult, Tituba provided a richly textured story of witchcraft in Salem Village. Her responses reflected many of the familiar images from the lore of occult beliefs. Her examination extended well into the afternoon and no doubt held the villagers in rapt attention.
Tituba maintained that there were four other witches active in the village — Good, Osborne, and two women she did not know from Boston. It remains difficult to explain Tituba’s extraordinary testimony. Unlike Good and Osborne, perhaps she sought only to please her listeners and willingly followed wherever John Hathorne’s questions led her. On the other hand, she may have done so out of fear of her master. The author of one contemporary account contended that Tituba said afterward that Parris beat her until she confessed and named her “sister-witches.” (Calef, 1700, p. 343). Given the vivid imagery in her testimony, we may, also, conclude that Tituba may have been describing hallucinations resulting from her occult experiences as a fortuneteller.
5.2. The confessions of the other witches
Mather and Parris had focused upon the imminent threat of a satanic plot because of the incredible confessions heard in an increasing number of examinations of suspects in late summer. For those who attended the proceedings from mid-July through the first week of September, or for those who heard about them, the enormity of the conspiracy emerged in startling clarity. Dozens of women, men, and children enthralled stunned spectators with details of an extraordinary scheme. They heard how the Devil had recruited a substantial following, called witch meetings, celebrated mock sacraments, and planned to destroy Christendom.
Several of the confessors described the Devil as a cunning black man who had approached them at a vulnerable time in their lives (Boyer and Nissenbaum, 1977, p. 65). Individuals with frustrated love lives attracted the Devil’s attention. Mercy Wardwell had been disconsolate because “people told her that she should never hath such a young man who loved her.”(Boyer and Nissenbaum, 1977, p.783). Convinced that they were right, Mercy did not return the young man’s advances, and “he finding no encouragement [from her] threatened to drown himself.” (Boyer and Nissenbaum, 1977, p. 783). Rebecca Eames grew despondent over an adulterous relationship “she was then in such horror of conscience that she took a rope to hang herself and a razor to cut her throat.” (Boyer and Nissenbaum, 1977, p. 282). Mary Toothaker was terrified by the repeated rumors of Indian attacks. In the spring of 1692, she “was under great discontentedness & troubled with fear about the Indians, & used often to dream of fighting with them.”(Boyer and Nissenbaum, 1977, p. 767).
Whatever their personal problems, the Devil promised to resolve them. The unfaithful Rebecca Eames contended that he had assured her that “she should not be brought out or even discovered” if she would join him (Boyer and Nissenbaum, 1977, p. 282). To most, however, the Devil offered material rewards for their allegiance: “fine clothes” for Mary Bridges, Jr., Hannah Post, and Sarah Wardwell; and Sarah Hawkes “should have what she wanted.” (Boyer and Nissenbaum, 1977, p.135). Elizabeth Johnson and Mary Marston anticipated “happiness & joy.” (Boyer and Nissenbaum, 1977, 502). Mary Toothaker would no longer have to worry about Indian attacks; and Mary Lacey, Jr., expected “crowns in Hell.”(Boyer and Nissenbaum, 1977, p.768).
Joining the Devil, according to the confessors, involved two important rituals — signing his covenant and being baptized by him. The recruits provided their signatures in a variety of ways. Mary Lacey, Jr., and Mary Marston simply signed “with a pen dipped in ink.” (Boyer and Nissenbaum, 1977, p. 201). Sarah Hawkes made “a black scrawl or mark with a stick as a confirmation of the covenant.” (Boyer and Nissenbaum, 1977, p. 387). Once they had signed, the Devil took them either to a pond or a river and baptized them into the cult (Boyer and Nissenbaum, 1977, p. 71). Mercy Wardwell said that she had experienced the opposite extreme. The Devil baptized her in her home “in a pail of water in which he dipped her face.” (Boyer and Nissenbaum, 1977, p. 781). Regardless of the mode or place of baptism, the confessors agreed to renounce Christ and yield to Satan “soul & body.” (Boyer and Nissenbaum, 1977, p. 387).
Once in the Devil’s “Company,” the recruits were obligated to attend witch meetings. Several testified that they had met in Salem Village near Samuel Parris’s house (Boyer and Nissenbaum, 1977, p. 66). Getting to the meetings proved a novel experience for the witches. Most claimed that they rode upon sticks or poles, a means of transport that took them above the trees (Boyer and Nissenbaum, 1977, p.140).
Even though the witches did confess all their sins their stories sound like legends which cannot be proved by any scientific facts. Besides, their confessions remind the warnings of church leaders who lived during those days and endeavored to emphasize the power of church by threatening people with stories about Satan and his evil acts. Thus, the confessions by witches sound so unrealistic that we may assume that those women and, also, men accused in witchcraft were forced to say those things. In fact, there is evidence that many of the people accused were tortured. Giles Corey, husband of Martha Corey (she was named as witch) was pressed to death when he refused to go to trial. Large weights were put on his chest to force him to confess. Giles Corey died instead of confessing a lie. Giles Corey was 80 years old and just refused to speak. This way he would not be taken to trial.
Furthermore, many women spoke of their hidden wishes (e.g. desire to have young lover; wear nice clothes; attract men, etc.) which could not come true because of strict Puritan values. Moreover, some women who were named as witches did not repent even when they went to the gallows which proves that they were not involved in witchcraft (for example, Sarah Goods, Rebecca Nurse).
6. Change in Heart
The witch hunt was getting out of control. People were beginning to think about what they were doing. In October of 1692 Governor of Massachusetts, Sir William Phips was outraged when his own wife was mentioned by the afflicted girls (Levack, 1987, p. 121). He suspended the court that he had started in May 1692. He replaced the court with a new Superior Court of Judicature, which did not allow spectral evidence. The court only condemned only 3 of the 56 people on trial (Levack, 1987, p. 123). Phips pardoned these three. In May of 1693 Phips pardoned all of the others waiting to be hanged. They were free to go as long as they paid their jail bills. Lots of them stayed in jail for months because they could not pay their bill.
7. Forgiveness and Memorial
Massachusetts little by little repented for the Salem Witch Trials. Rev. Joseph Green replaced Rev. Parris and the colony observed a Day of Atonement in 1697 (Levack, 1987, p. 167). Samuel Sewell, the judge, admitted publicly that he was wrong in taking part in the witch trials. He was the only judge to make such a statement. Also, Anne Putman who accused several women in witchcraft made a public apology for her part (Levack, 1987, p. 174).
In 1711 legislature passed a bill restoring the good names of some of the victims and their heirs got restitution. In 1957 the city of Salem and the town of Danvers (originally Salem Village) dedicated memorials to the “slain” witched in 1691. In the end, 19 people were hung, five died in jail including the infant baby of Sarah Good, and one died from torture.
Conclusion
Thus, Salem Witch Trials is one of the saddest pages in the history of America. The desire of those immigrants to New England who had brought occult beliefs with them, sought to create a society of closely knit Christian villages with a strong sense of communal responsibility. Inspired by the belief that they were on a mission for God to preserve the true church, these committed immigrants eagerly pursued the task of establishing a Christian utopia. God, they believed, had entered into a covenant with man to save his predestined “elect” status. Therefore, one of the possible causes of the massive witch hunt was the desire of people to establish the true Christian church and emphasize their special place in cosmos destroying those whose behavior was somewhat different from traditional Christian beliefs. As it was mentioned earlier in this paper, some witches had fortunetelling and healing skills. Also, some of them were old and ill and could not attend church. Besides, some women were unfaithful to their husbands; the fact that, also, contradicts Christian values.
The second reason was the desire of men to preserve their dominant status in the society. As it was stated earlier, the majority of those accused were women. Besides, women could strengthen its status in the society by inheriting property and gaining economic prosperity.
Furthermore, the lack of knowledge in the field of medicine was the third cause of the witch hunt. It is obvious that the doctors who were not able to explain the origin of illness could not admit their incompetence. Therefore, they did not want to ruin their reputation and simply stated that witchcraft caused the illness.
Finally, Salem farmers suffered from unfavorable weather conditions. Since they could not find scientific factors to explain natural occurrences they endeavored to find supernatural causes.
Thus, there can be various interpretations of the persecution of witches in the seventeenth century but we can certainly state that those women were innocent victims of the ignorant society.
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Andrew Sandon
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THE TRUTH ABOUT SATANIC CULTS.what do you think about Michael Tsarion and his theory about hollow earth alien evil gene?
i heard couple of his theory’s that i find realy interesting what’s your opinion about this guy serios answers please
Well, I admit he’s interesting, but more in an amusing way than anything I find actually credible. But his ideas do look entertaining.
Jesse Ventura: You Give Me a Water Board, Dick Cheney and One Hour
From Larry King Live May 11, 2009.
http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/heather/jesse-ventura-you-give-me-water-board-dick
Duration : 0:3:44
Huge News at Infowars
awakening peaceful revolution viral video citizen activism Infowars Infowars Alex Jones Prison Planet PrisonPlanet Barack Obama
Duration : 1 min 44 sec
Is Alex Jones (Infowars, PrisonPlanet) just a profiteering fear mongerer?
There sure is a lot of actual tangible evidence to support his claims. On the other hand, he sure does have a lot of doom and gloom type of advertisers on his web sites. Seems somewhat suspicious.
Alex Jones is out there, but if you do the research a lot of what he says is true… there are politicians who speak the exact same thing.
Jones is completely non-partisan.. he is simply anti- NWO…which is quite real, look at whats really going on..
he also puts everything he makes out for free all his documentaries are completely free to download and dirtribute
"The world is governed by very different personages from what is imagined by those who are not behind the scenes."
— Benjamin Disraeli
"For more than a century ideological extremists at either end of the political spectrum have seized upon well-publicized incidents such as my encounter with Castro to attack the Rockefeller family for the inordinate influence they claim we wield over American political and economic institutions. Some even believe we are part of a secret cabal working against the best interests of the United States, characterizing my family and me as ‘internationalists’ and of conspiring with others around the world to build a more integrated global political and economic structure–one world, if you will. If that’s the charge, I stand guilty, and I am proud of it."
David Rockefeller- Memiors
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAaQNACwaLw
The Other America
Recently, one of the Network News agencies, has chosen to warm our hearts with a new Series “the Other America”. The content is good. Overall the series is supposedly a Media example of their “sensitivity”. In reality it’s an example of their elitism, blinded by daily life, lack of understanding of what life is to millions and millions of Americans. The series is as enigmatic to the people it is profiling as is the plight of the majority of Americans to 99.9% of all politicians. “the Other American” being reported on is America! The media, the politicians, and most of upper-middle class America, are… really… the “Other America”. The only class that is constantly growing in the U.S. any longer, is, the “poor”.
There is a very great consensus in the “more fortunate” America, that Welfare recipients are the representation of poverty. Hogwash. People on Welfare programs get cash subsidy, food stamps, and some of the best health care available. Just because they may not have a car… does not make them the “Poor”! In most areas they also get bus passes. They qualify for subsidized housing because they have a reliable payday with a consistent amount, every month, and… they wear out a lot of TV’s!
As of late, there has been some exposure, still not enough though, of the fact that there is an America, a very, very large America, that is Generationally locked in an income bracket that is too high for money from government assistance programs, but not enough to have what people at that Network, employed by Government agencies, and in that News Agency take for granted everyday. The parents and children in these families don’t go to the Dentist… they eat handfuls of Aspirin and swipe a tube of Ora-Gel from the drug store. In a dire situation, they go to the hospital emergency and wait for 4… 6… 8… 20 hours, using the ER as their “clinic” to get their temperature taken and a prescription for an anti-biotic. They don’t actually get the anti-biotic, though. They go home and have to make an appointment at the qualification program for being determined to be medically indigent. That appointment is usually 3 to 14 days away. By the time they could get this done, they feel well enough to forego the sitting and waiting at yet one more place. Or… they’re now so sick that they have to return to the ER and now they are triaged and the ER administers the medicine that they needed 2 or 3 weeks ago. Sometimes… they just die! No medicine wasted, huh? This class works… puts in a week that should support them, but doesn’t. They are not going to the Food Bank, no way are they going to take handouts. So… they eat a diet really full of beans, potatoes, eggs and bread products. But they don’t have to ask for a handout. Why should they, most of them have a job? As life progresses they become overweight, often developing hypertension and diabetes, and never knowing that, that is why they feel crummy so often. For most of them recreation involves beer. Watching sports on TV and going to the park don’t have admission fees. In the summer, if they are lucky enough for there to still be no fees charged, they go to the river or lake for “cool” recreation. If they live in a city, they usually just have a back yard BBQ and a wading pool, a slip-n-slide, or a water hose and sprinkler. What’s “air conditioning”? Can’t afford to pay the power company even if they have it… a fan keeps them from being overcome by heat prostration, sometimes. They’re used to this stuff, though. They may wish it were different, but have to learn not to live above their means. They have a pretty decent used car, but don’t drive it any more than necessary because they can’t afford to pay for insurance, and if they get pulled over, most places these days, their car will get impounded or confiscated. There’s not much time for helping the kids with homework, so they don’t do especially well in school, and end up working somewhere similar to where mom and dad work. Their children are going to do the same thing, too. Unless…
“Man, if I could sell that “Crank” and not use it, I could bust out of this place.” We know that seldom works!
“Heh, those “Arian Boys” that hang out down at the old plant take care of each other. They got some things ‘goin’ on’, and always have money. They hardly ever do any of that race stuff everybody says they do.” Oh… Yeah… they do; just not in the daylight!
“I took a hit off of a joint for the first time the other day” the 12-year-old says. “… and it made me laugh and forget about dad hittin’ mom in the face.” Twelve is the average age kids first use Marijuana now. Crank is just over the horizon!
“Heh Joe, I know that Pot isn’t going to get me hooked. I’ve been smokin’ it since I was twelve” the 14-year-old says. “Why don’t ya let me have a taste of your Heroin? Just once won’t hurt anything, I’m sure.” The average user who likes the “down” from Heroin can get psychologically hooked in two or three weeks, using 3 to 5 times a week. I’ve seen people try Meth and start using every day… starting with the 1st trial run!
Three 15-year-olds that have been hanging out together since 3rd Grade are sitting on the block wall in front of the Clinic on a warm summer evening, wishing they had the money to go see a movie, or get Arnie to buy them some beer. Bill says, “See that hall, right behind us, in the Clinic?” Tasha and Geraldo reply, “Yeah!” “Well,” Bill says, “there’s a window that is always open, and the supply room is on the other side of it! You know what’s in there, huh?” Oh yeah, they simultaneously reply. Bill says, “I’ve walked up there and pushed on it and no alarm went off. I don’t think there’s one on it, and I could fit through there, easy!” Geraldo asks, “You think we could get some money for something in there, easy?” Tasha says, “No problem! My brother knows some dudes who’ll buy almost anything, and sell it for some profit. That’s what they do!” There’s an alarm. It’s a sensor on the windowsill, not the window. If they were to get away with it, it would just make the next time easier to move on. If not, as young as they are, first offenses usually don’t cost much. But, either way, there’s a good chance that this kind of thinking is the beginning of an anti-social lifestyle, because of their environment and financial status. Anyway, it’s probably just the beginning of thinking that results from desperation and predictably low expectations. Even if they don’t turn toward crime as a future, but are dissuaded by consequences, a low paying job is often their future, as was the fate of their primary role models. If they do become Addicts and go to Prison behind a felony conviction, one new door will open… Drug Treatment. Sad but true, in most States that is the only access to funded treatment, that is far to expensive for most Addicts or their families. Bush’s vouchers are a joke, intended to subsidize “Faith based programs”. Separation of Church and State? No, and few Addicts are able to adjust to them as a 24-hour-a-day way of life. The streets don’t inspire much faith in anything!
These American that are America, feel fortunate to move from an $8/hr job into one that will eventually peak at $15/hr with no benefits. For these really common, everyday Americans Social Security is the light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel. There isn’t going to be a 401K, stocks or bonds. … just Social Security, and finally health care will be in their reach, too. This is not “the Other America”. It is America. Notice that no one mentioned here owns a home? The death of the American Dream is not a recent phenomenon.
Children of these families are many of those fighting Bush’s War. It’s a shot at getting out! We all know by looking at the VA hospitals that, that’s no done deal! Find out how many Senators or Congressmen have children fighting the War in Iraq. Find out how many had children fighting in Vietnam. See how many families with two College educated parents, or even one, have children in Iraq. See how many UAW members, Electricians, College Professors, Doctors or Lawyers are Veterans.
These are the people who have nothing to really hold on to if Social Security is not stabilized and kept out of the privatization mode. These are the people whose faith in America could be reborn if they just found they could go to the doctor when they get sick. We know that there are about 40,000,000 of them if that News agency is accurate in their reporting. That’s no sure deal either, though, is it?
If we are not at an epic moment where the myth of the Free Market economic stabilization (trickle-down economics – Neo-Conservative philosophy) concept is finally realized to be at an end, and socialization of basic necessities for daily living is not implemented as a result… we may be at the end of a dream set forth in 1776. Capitalistic Democracy just may not work as a permanent philosophy for an entire culture. The American Dream may die because Capitalist greed will have alienated its workforce. As it is, the average working person has become the modern version of the Plantation Owner’s Slave. The lending agencies have replaced “the Company Store”! We’re kept just healthy enough to assure that the corporation’s product continues, but no longer well enough to be the best producers in the world. Quality was the backbone of American production, and the Unions kept up wages and helped workers realize the American Dream, as a result. Well may very well pertain to psychological fitness even more than physical fitness. Right now the problem is that the “Company Store” got so greedy that they loaned past the point where the “Slaves” could ever repay their debts. The debts are closing the Company Stores. The workers losing their jobs, no longer can even attempt to pay their irresolvable debt. The economy is stuck because greed has produced a broken link in the chain and it can’t hold up the system. No workers work, no product is produced, so there is no need for the company. So, after enough companies fade away an entire industry fades with them. America is in trouble and it’s big. As much as our leaders talk about mainstream America, they still don’t get it. Almost anything that is strong is strong because it has a strong Foundation. The Banks are not the foundation of America. The Insurance companies and the pharmaceutical companies are not it. The foundation is at the bottom of anything and everything. The lowest paid worker is the bottom. They are the foundation of the United States. The Unions, at one time grew to protect almost all workers in every capacity, and this country thrived like it never had. But when Ronald Reagan broke the Air Traffic Controllers Union strike, big business began a campaign to break them all and maximize their profits and their shareholders dividends by gradually lowering wage, not providing the Health-care covered by the Unions, and doing away with Retirement Benefits by introducing the, eventually (NOW) to become an absolute failure, 401K, placing the future of all workers in the Stock Market. This move favoring the “Corporations” resulted in such outrageous profit that the CEO came to make 7 to 10 figure salaries and other executives secured commensurate salaries. This kind of wealth bread a class of power that produced Criminal business practices rooted in pure greed. These were companies like Enron and people like Dick Cheney. Though Enron more or less got exposed, what was not seen was how widespread and well hidden these practices were in the major corporations of America. Well, we can see them now. The sad thing is, that the average American worker whose future is very questionable, is paying for all of it. That problem grows unbelievably as our bankrupt Government slips ever farther into debt to the rest of the World. They’re now spending our Grandchildren’s taxes. Still, in the long term, all of the Capitalist greed has to be paid for by the workers not their bosses.
Start at the bottom, the foundation. Raise the minimum wage. Raise it a lot. Make sure that full-time employment is always “gainful” employment. Legally protect the Unionization of workers with regulation. Socialize Health-care and get the workers healthy. If the Unions are strong they’ll then contribute to the Health-care socialization program. Fund Drug Rehabilitation and get those people out of Prison and back into the taxpaying public. Fix Social Security so that benefits increase and the age of retirement does not go up. If people are working and making reasonable pay, the Social Security tax could go up without affecting the overall income of its contributors, and they won’t mind because their Golden Years will be funded. Give the people the ability to “spend” money. If we do that, everything else will follow. Yeah, the Stock Market will have to become realistic, and shareholders will only get reasonable dividends. Executives will still be rich but they don’t need the income of an entire small community or some small countries, to live above the rest of us. They can keep their “Power-trip”! Throw out all the “pork barrel” shit and invest taxpayer money on three things that all charge the economy. First is infrastructure 101. Get our bridges and highways up out of the rubble and safe again. Second is powering our country. Wind and Solar generation need to be taken to the maximum conceivable state. They are inexhaustible. Also, there is no “clean” coal technology, abandon it. The automobile needs to become clean technology and that means fossil fuel is out of the picture. In all reality we should be able to produce electric vehicles that inevitably cost less than current internal combustion powered vehicles. We should already have a battery that meets the needs of the average American’s transportation demands, but we don’t. Why? Expand rail service nationwide and locally, with existing models as guides, including High Speed. In cities elevated and subways can be retrofitted in. Clean buses should run 24/7. Make solar power a building code inclusion for construction of new structures including private, business and public. Third and finally, we should build our foreign policy around peaceful coexistence, eliminating hunger and disease in third world countries, and including them in the world of technology with all counties included in all aspects of improving quality of life on the planet, with all things, always considering ecology and the future of the Planet. You see Mr. Television Network, Doctors, Lawyers and Chief Executive, and you safe and secure Government Employees… YOU are not only the “other America”, you are the other “World”! Most of the people on this Planet do not know what it is like to be in the upper 25%, whether American, British, Japanese, Indian, Iraqi, Israelite, or French and Spanish.
Do you realize that most American teenagers can no longer afford to go to a concert to see their favorite musicians or other performers? Tickets that cost $60 to $250 dollars are a monthly payment on a decent used car, for really a lot of people. What percentage of the people do you think ever see a play, Broadway level, or a Ballet, or a Symphony Orchestra? The American Dream has been fading for some time now. For the true majority of us buying a home as a primary financial goal has been replaced with buying a New Car, and that’s fading fast. These are the facts that brought the Stock Market into “realistic” phase. All the BS facts used for speculation have been forced to more or less call in the debts and see what’s really left given true values. 50 to 100 million people is a big number, but it’s actually not a big percentage of the population if you’re making realistic evaluation of the quality of life in our country. Even if you look at the incomes of the top 250 million citizens, it leaves a lot of people to consider. I’ll bet that 25% of the people in almost every town in the U.S. can’t afford anything that costs an extra $50 per month added to their budget!
The job situation in this country is an ominous problem for the future of our economy, and it’s beginning to look as though it is not readily solvable. Companies are down-sizing and folding, period. In folding, the jobs they provided no longer exist. They’re not coming back is what that means. My God, just exactly how many jobs have been lost and companies folded during the Bush Presidency. I think we’re talking about a historical unseen event in modern history. Neo Conservatives with their de-regulation and trickle-down economics may already have destroyed the United States, as we have known it during my lifetime. And if they have, it is in truth, a direct result of greed and selfishness at a National level. We have two choices, right now, as I see it. We can move toward socialization of essentials (spread the wealth), or… we can do as Third World countries do, and just let a lot of people starve to death and die from curable disease! I think that would actually make us a 3rd World Country, huh? “the Other America”, hah… it would be hilarious if it weren’t so frightening to hear the Majority of Americans being referred to as “the Other America”!
CounselorDave
http://www.articlesbase.com/economics-articles/the-other-america-734549.html
What is a new world order I remember Pres Bush 41 gave a speech on sept 11 1991 about the new world order?
What is a new world order I remember Pres Bush 41 gave a speech on sept 11 1991 about the new world order? What does it means?
You have got to go to Infowars.com!
Go to Google Video and watch Alex Jones’ documentary called ENDGAME!
Alex has a lot of documentaries, but you should start with this one, and also watch "Loose Change" the 2nd edition…
