Gage Sironi, Lyrica Stelle, Kyler Loveless, Mark Schumacher, Maya Morse

November 25, 2012

Humanities
Talk show script

Gage: Good evening everyone, my name is Gage Sironi, welcome to an Ideological History.
Tonight joining us from several different situations throughout history where something of a
'witch hunt' was performed are four special guests. But I will get to that in a minute. If you don't
know what a witch hunt is, get out (gesture to the door, and make sure enough time is allowed
before saying its a joke). Just kidding, I'll explain. The term witch hunt is most famously
exemplified through the Salem Witch Trials, in which 20 people were killed for the crime of
witchcraft and over 200 accused. Not all witch hunts involved killing people, but they all
involved some form of prejudice, stemming from an ideology. Ideologies being, a set of beliefs
set in place by a group of people or a single person. Tonight we are going to examine how
ideology feeds hysteria. Let's give a warm welcome to our guests; Lyrica Stelle an expert on
hate groups, Mark Schumacher an expert on McCarthyism, Maya Morse, an expert on Japanese
internment in WWII, and finally Kyler Loveless an expert on Isolophobia. And I will be your
expert tonight on the Salem Witch Trials.

Gage: Before we begin the real discussion tonight I want to to start us off with a brief overview
from each of our guests, all of whom are highly knowledgeable about very different, and yet very
similar, events in American history. Lets start with you Lyrica, who are Neo Nazis? What is the
KKK?

Lyrica: Neo-Nazis and the KKK are two active hate groups in the United States formed by
people with similar beliefs, wanting to eliminate people who are not white Christians, including
African Americans, immigrants, gays, lesbians, multiracial families, and until recently,
Catholics.

Gage: (Nods in thanks to Lyrica) Now Mark, can you tell us a little about McCarthyism?

Mark: Well Mccarthyism basically began when a wisconsin senator, Joseph McCarthy saw an
opportunity, created by the red scare, to stay in his position another term. He accused over 200
people of being Communists in order to create a controlled hysteria that gave him power.Those
accused were held on trial and asked a series of unfair questions. If they refused to cooperate
they were blackballed, (meaning they couldnt get a job.) When he eventually began attacking
the military.The courts began to realize he was a phoney, and he was not elected for a third term.

Gage: (Nods politely to Mark now) How about you Maya, what happened during the Japanese-
American Internment?

Maya: The internment of Japanese Americans occurred after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, when
the U. S. government decided to intern thousands of Japanese Americans in camps with nothing
but the simplest of necessities. Different of course, from nazi concentration camps, as they were
meant to be a place to live in.

Gage: (Nods again, to Maya this time) Finally Kyler, what exactly is Islamophobia?

Kyler: Islamophobia began after 9/11 when it was believed that Muslims flew planes into the
twin towers in New York City, the pentagon in Virginia, and a failed attempt on the white house
in Washington DC. People then started to think that all Muslims were terrorists, when in reality it
was simply a terrorist group called the al-Qaeda.

Gage: Thank you all. Now allow me to give you some background on The Salem Witch Trials.
They took place in the town of Salem Massachusetts, it was initiated by a small group of girls
who started to exhibit strange behavior. When the town doctor said that they may be bewitched,
these girls then accused three women of being the witches that inflicted them. The accusations
just got worse from there until 20 people were killed in all.

Gage:, Finally it is time to move on to the focus of our discussion tonight. If ideology feeds
hysteria, then how? Lets start by getting Mayas opinion. What are your thoughts on this Maya?

Maya: I believe that Ideology can be the basis for preventing hysteria. Because ideology is
meant to explain things that are otherwise inexplicable. Ideology is meant to make sense from
the chaos of the world. In that way, the laws of science and the laws in history are in their own
right, ideologies. During the internment of the Japanese Americans the ideology that they were
all spies and needed to be isolated and not allowed to have contact with Japan allowed for the
people, scared as they were from the bombing of Pearl Harbor to have some peace at the notion
that none of these Japanese Americans could relay information to Japan. In essence this act
prevented the hysteria that might have come about had the government not done what it did.
Things might have ended very similarly to the situation (Lyrica) described was this not the case.
I would never say that this justifies in any way, the actions of the U.S. during World War Two
with regards to the Japanese Americans. But the ideology was meant to prevent hysteria, and
thats exactly what it did.
Gage: Maybe in that one case, that was true but, that is not always so. In the Salem Witch Trials,
people used their religion to try to put a cause on events that did not make sense to them, yes this
did happen. They accused people of bewitching them and then they would kill those whom they
convicted of witchcraft. Those who confessed would need to name those who afflicted them. The
people named would then be convicted.

Kyler: The government has used ideology to feed hysteria causing many wars and outbursts
between countries, such as the war on terror. Hysteria is caused when people dont take the time
to research and get to know other religions, or the other things hysteria stems from. They judge
on only what theyve heard, which is usually lies and blown out of proportion. Its not religion
itself that causes hysteria, but people who jump to conclusions based on fear, and lack of
knowledge.

Gage: And to make things worse, the justice system was all based on religion. It made its
decisions and gave sentence on that basis. For example, most if not all of the evidence used in
the trials was spectrul. People claimed to see things like animals and people. The court in Salem
then took these claims as fact and acted upon them, trusting the testimony of these people
without any physical evidence to back it.

Mark: This is very similar to the Mccarthy trials, in that the accusers most often didnt have any
solid proof that what they were saying, could be backed up with actual evidence.

Gage: You're quite right. Wild accusations with no evidence, can never lead to a good outcome.

Maya: At the same time, no matter how you look at it the people were using those ideologies as
a way to explain something otherwise inexplicable and in that way, preventing the hysteria
caused by the fear of something you dont understand. When people are scared they jump to the
best conclusion they can think of even if its completely warped, if it will explain things in a way
that makes sense to them, theyll take it in place to being hysteric.

Gage: How about you two? What do you think? (gestures to Kyler and Lyrica)

Mark: In the case of Mccarthyism the ideology and the hysteria was already in place from the
red scare. So when McCarthy saw an opportunity to stay in his position for another term, he
became an amplifier of the belief that Communists were evil. He fed the hysteria by making so
many public accusations and trying to publicize anything he could about the Communists
(makes in air quotations with fingers)

Lyrica: As black Americans gained more freedom the actions the Ku Klux Klan took become
more and more severe. At first, when the slaves gained freedom, the KKK made laws so that the
former slaves would have to continue working for their former owners. And by the time black
Americans gained freedom the Ku Klux Klan was taking such extreme actions as killing black
Americans for whistling at a white woman.
The ideology formed by the Ku Klux Klan both prevented hysteria and fed it.
Through the Ku Klux Klan killing black Americans, the fear that some white Americans held
around job security and social status was minimized. This helped to prevent hysteria.
If the government had put something in place, similar to what they did with the
Internment of Japanese Americans, then maybe the hysteria, caused by the ideology of the KKK
could have been prevented. Because the Ku Klux Klan hated black Americans so much, and
made them out to be such bad people, and so much less than white Americans, white Americans
looked at them as a threat .

Gage: So, am I correct in assuming that ideology will often cause some kind of suffering within
a group even if the ideology was created with the best of intentions? (Others give a nod or a yes)
So what then are the effects of the witch hunts on individuals and groups and can we empower
each other to act against injustices?

Lyrica: Because of the ideology formed by religion and enforced by the Ku Klux Klan
thousands of Americans mostly black, but some white were killed and tortured, just because of
the color of their skin or what they believed. By standing up for ourselves, and what we believe
in we can prevent witch hunts like this from happening again.

Gage: How do you think that this goal can be achieved?

Maya: The effects of the Internment on the Japanese-Americans was the immediate loss of their
view on The American Dream or this ideal place where you can make a name for yourself and
simply live a life completely free to believe what you believe. Having their rights taken away so
easily, they could see that the government would do whatever it felt necessary to in order to
protect the country.
What we need a government that can see where security ends with the violation with the civil
rights of the citizens. Seeing as this ideal government is almost impossible to create due to the
human condition, the fact that humans will never see things the same way. It would be a more
plausible idea for people to stop judging others based on race, class, sex, almost anything that
makes people different. However this is again prevented by the fact that there is no way for
people to accept everyone due to their own personal beliefs. The human condition, being the way
it is does not allow for a world where any form of prejudice is non-existent. There will always be
someone acting out on their personal, religious, or any other ideology they possess. Acting
against those people who are acting on their ideologies is simply acting on your own. That makes
us no better than them, in the end were all just people with opinions.

Mark: During the Mccarthy era, Many people lost their jobs, credibility, and their piece of mind.
It caused people to question, (after he was exposed as a fraud) the security of their lives and jobs.
I caused people to question the law systems and government.
I think that in order to attempt to prevent this from happening again we have to have the courts
reliable, and thorough. We must have the evidence and the liability of the accuser good. We also
need to have multiple sides of the investigation, and accusations. as well as from our own
opinions about what is going on rather than trusting the propaganda that s all around you.


Kyler: I don't think we'll ever really be able to end war, violence, or force religions to get along
with each other but, I think if we all take time to understand and learn about these religions we
can have a better understanding and be able to maybe respect their beliefs, and not make false
accusations, which creates mass hysteria, and makes people do some stupid stuff out of fear.

Gage: What you said is an unfortunate truth. I feel the same way. In the Salem Trials, the
ideology was a religion, the most common kind of ideology. It caused the people to demonise
others or in this case, it was the demon and those thought to work for him. People lost any
respect that they might have held in the town and then they started to have as the Dalai Lama
said petty fights. The only way that this kind of event and the other witch hunts that we have
shared can be prevented is through understanding. We as a race need to be able to understand
each other's beliefs and respect all people. This means that we need to understand that we are all
people on this planet and we need to live for the betterment of a race and not of an ideal of idea.

Maya: How do you propose that people form this understanding? How can you be sure that its
even possible to have an entire population believe the same thing?

Gage: It is not possible to do this. The best that we can hope for is that as many people as
possible can come to live in peace and understanding for one another, because as we have shown
tonight. Misunderstanding and fear will often cause unnecessary violence and war. This is a
human fault but it is nonetheless there. Unfortunately, that is all the time that we have tonight.
Please give my guests a round of applause, guests stand and wave as they exit. A difference in
opinion is a great virtue, but when that difference causes harm, it becomes a great weakness...
Good Night. Lights drop

Burning questions:
Is it hard to follow with such long chunks of dialogue? If so, how could we make
it more interesting?
What could we add, take out, or change to make the script easier to follow?
Is it obvious what our thematic question is?
Is the name An Ideological History catching and appropriate for our talk show title?