A View From A Bridge

Throughout the 1940s and 1950s, communism was a major threat to the United States. Joseph McCarthy, a senator at the time, attempted to capitalize on this by accusing over two hundred men and women of sneaking communism into the United States government or for supporting the cause.* Among these two hundred men and women were several authors, including Arthur Miller. In explaining his reasoning for writing The Crucible, Miller said, ". . . my basic need was to respond to a phenomenon which, with only small exaggeration, one could say was paralyzing a whole generation and in an amazingly short time was drying up the habits of trust and toleration in public discourse."* After visiting Salem and researching the events of the Salem Witch Trials, Miller realized how the havoc of these events corresponded to the events in the 1940s and 1950s.*

In Miller’s lifetime, McCarthyism was happening. The Red Scare in the 1950s made everyone in the United States afraid of what communists in the United States might do to them. This intolerance between communists and non-communists caused distrust, suspicions, and mass hysteria during the Cold War in the United States, as it did in seventeenth century Salem. A person’s reputation during McCarthyism, however, could hurt them more then

Throughout the 1940s and 1950s America was overwhelmed with concerns about the growing threat of communism in Eastern Europe and in China. One senator in particular, Joseph McCarthy took this one step further and made more than two-hundred accusations against these supposed communists, one of these people being Arthur Miller. Miller dared to stand against McCarthy and used The Crucible as a way to show McCarthy’s flaws without approaching him directly. The Salem Witch Trials and the Scares in the Mid Nineteen hundreds both remind us that no man is perfect, and we do make mistakes.

I'm an ambassador for amnesty international, campaigning for refugees rights. Amnesty works to protect the safety of millions of refugees who are forced to flee their homes to escape war, genocide and torture. The main debate of this issue is of national security vs human rights. Every Australian has their stance on this and for those that oppose it, often believe that “we are letting in terrorists”. This generalisation, based off ill-legitimate fear, is anything but true. In fact, it is just racist. According to the the Australian Parliamentary Library, between 70-100% of people who arrived by boat have been found to be refugees. This means, these individuals have been forced to leave their

Another Information that imparted Arthur Miller was McCarthy trials. This story was like the Salem Witch Trials where there were accusations of innocent people, but the only difference is that this was based on communism. Many people do not like communism especially the Americans after World War Two. That is normal because nobody wants to be under a dictatorship. Everyone wants to have freedom, and nobody wants to be a slave. In accordance with History website, many Americans were frightened when Senator Joseph McCarthy said that there were communist people infiltrated in the American government because the United States Army was soft on communism. As a result, a lot of politicians lost their job, but they also were put in a blacklist where it was difficult to find job. Fortunately, the conclusion for this story was that Senator Joseph McCarthy was lying, and all those things he said were for political interest (History.com Staff). No one can forget that the United States was involved in World War Two just a few years before, in other words, the United States could not tell the Soviet Union that The United States would not accept more communism in the world. The Soviet Union was another strong country as well as the United States. A disagreement could bring military conflicts between the two nations; therefore, the United States Army had to be passive and intelligent on communism. That is why the accusations that Senator Joseph McCarthy had said were in his own interest.

McCarthyism is the practice of making the accusations of disloyalty, especially of pro-Communist activity (“McCarthyism”). This term has become a byname for the defamation of character or reputation by means of widely publicized indiscriminate allegations, especially on the basis of unsubstantiated charges (Achter). During the Era of McCarthyism, the Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy manipulated and capitalized off the fear of the Red Scare by proclaiming that communist spies were present and McCarthy was America’s only salvation. Arthur Miller was brought upon the House Committee on Un-American Activities to testify against other entertainment industry. Arthur refused to reveal the names of alleged communist writers, he was found in contempt of Congress, and was blacklisted from work (“Arthur Miller Biography”).

Joe McCarthy enjoyed a short reign in the spotlight of American politics in the early 1950s. His tactics, the baseless accusations of Communist ties, would come to be called McCarthyism and they set the tone of the American crusade against the ‘threat’ of Communism for years to come. The era in which the heavily anti-Communist McCarthyism reigned in America was one marked by fear, suspicion, and tightly geld ideals. Many found themselves under fire from the political witch hunts and more than one life was destroyed by the accusations brought upon it. The illegalization of the Communist movement and the misfortune that a Communist branding would cause were all unfortunate products of a fallacy filled mindset what stripped Americans of their

This not only applied to America, but also to other countries such as France and Italy. To aid against the Soviet Unions growing Communist power over such countries, America enacted Cold War liberalism in an attempt to contain the forces within Russia. It was further helped through the Mutual Security Act, which provided countries with grants that would help them combat Communist takeover. In addition, it is shown through the audience of Doc 2 how public speeches on the subject of Communism affected the public by riling them up to points of violence. The speeches by Joseph McCarthy, the most prominent Red Scare speaker, created a popular practice called McCarthyism. In this, people would make accusations against others about supposed Communist ties without any substantial evidence. The most drastic case that resulted from McCarthyism was the Rosenberg’s, who were executed for their supposed ties with Communist

Many flee as a result of faith based persecution, others for their race, sexual category, or maybe ethnicity while a few precede due to their politics stances, faith based affiliations or maybe social rank. This kind of exploration will probably focus on problems faced by simply Asylum seekers in addition to whether or not they need to be permitted within formulated international locations (Australia) along with the honest factor of the Australian federal government insurance policy in asylum seekers. The following paragraphs shed light on the ethical discussion for this circumstance.

Arthur Miller’s The Crucible is a stark and brash commentary on the Joseph McCarthy era, which was at its height in 1953. The book was modeled on the social and political climate of post-World War II, when Communist associations and accusations ran rampant in the government and the public was instilled with fear. The characters in The Crucible were intentionally made by Miller to represent figures from the McCarthy era, and he made a strong connection between the witch hunts of Salem and the Communist “witch hunts” of the 1950s. Scare tactics fueled the propaganda for both generations, and became the impetus of those in power controlling the masses and exposing the weak for the supposed greater good, resulting in an ever distant rift between

Throughout the years, there have been articles about asylum seekers resorting to violence due to discontentment with the Australian government regarding the assessment of their refugee status. These are evident cries for help which sparks off debates on the government’s abilities to find a successful solution to the asylum issues. Australia has been criticized due to the requirements of compulsory immigration detention for ‘all unlawful non-citizens, (including asylum seekers)’ (Phillips & Spinks 2013, p.1). The other controversial issue of Australia regarding the asylum seekers is also the claims that it has been avoiding it’s responsibilities under the United Nations refugee conventions by making it hard for asylum seekers to claim

In the 1950’s, there was a large fear of communism in the United States. People were afraid of the terrors that came with communism and it created a great panic. For personal gains, people falsely accused others, leading to innocent people arrested. Arthur Miller voiced his opinion to the situation by writing The Crucible, a play that recounts the story of a similar scenario - the Salem witch trials.

While McCarthy may have been an adept manipulator of America’s fear of communism, by the time he made his allegations, these fears were already firmly entrenched in the American consciousness. Dating back as far the first Red Scare, during which a number of labor strikes were falsely attributed to communist agitation, Americans had been lead to believe that communism not only posed a threat to their way of life, but that communist agents were actively at work within not only America, but the American government. These fears were further exacerbated by the onset of the cold war following World War II, and by Truman’s announcement in 1949 that Russia had developed nuclear capabilities roughly 10 years ahead of schedule, which had lead to allegations of soviet espionage. Additionally, the case of Alger Hiss, which had been tried concurrently with McCarthy’s allegations, had presented the possibility that there were in fact a large number of high-level American government officials who were transmitting classified documents to Russia (the fact that Hiss had was a former member of the State Department of course helped McCarthy’s cause), despite the fact that this was probably not the

McCarthyism was practiced during the Cold War. People would report someone who was allegedly a communist and they would be put on trial in front of a court. In the United States, communism was feared and many people grew wary of neighbors due to this fear, as they didn’t know who was a communist. Panic was widespread across America because of this. However, most of the time, whenever someone was accused of being a communist it was to get back at that person for one reason or another. Victims of McCarthyism included government employees, famous actors and directors, homosexuals, voices behind radio talk shows, union activists, teachers, and people with relations to a “communist.” Even in the event that the trial ended up concluding that the

Good morning delegates of the youth parliament and observing members. Today I stand before you to discuss an issue that continues to evoke high emotions and create deep divisions within Australian society. I refer to the matter of refugees and Australia's immigration policy. Not since the second world war has the world faced such an upheaval with so many people displaced. In 2015 there were 65.3 million people forcibly displaced from their homes because of conflict and persecution. Developing countries hold 84% of refugees while wealthier countries like Australia prioritise the need to reduce asylum seekers within their borders. The current policy contravenes the proper treatment of refugees and asylum seekers; because regardless of their mode of entry, once here Australia has a duty to provide protection.