Hate And Hysteria Essays - Communism In The United States

Hate And Hysteria Essays - Communism In The United States Hate and hysteria Hate and hysteria Author Murray Levin (1977) wrote, AMcCarthyism, in a capitalist society, produces extremism, intolerance, instability, and large scale repression (p.216). He also says that AThe promoters of mass politics raise the question of justice and attempt to play upon generalized resentments steaming from deeper layers of personality. The politics of mass society does not focus on group [emailprotected] The purpose of these politics is the defense of the ultimate truth. This "Red scare" started in the twenties and in one form or another lasted till well after World War 2 was over. McCarthyism was not the work of psychotics and paranoids. This political hysteria was a mixture of American conservatism, pluralism, anti-radicalism, racism, and nativism. . In addition, this passionate form of nationalism was perceived by most Americans as a perfectly sensible and American way to defend the American way of life against danger. Louis Hartz (1956) said Athe Red scare was a product of the American people manipulating themselves as well as the American people responding to [emailprotected] According to the popular opinion, Robert Murray warned that communist were to come and overthrow our form of government and business enterprises. He said that communism would do five things. " First, destroy property rights. Second, take away all personal initiative in industrial activities. Third, abolish civil government and the political state. Fourth, destroy the church and religious institutions. Finally, abandon family relations. Many who actively promoted the hysteria genuinely believed in conspiracy, consider themselves as patriots, and utilized the hysteria for private political and economic gain that they usually hid. "Joe McCarthy was one of the top investigators of communism along with Edgar Hoover, who was at that time a director of the FBI."(the hunt began) McCarthy got all his suspects from Hoover; many times they made false accusations to help their cause. They were the at the root of hysteria during the 40's and 50's. McCarthyism has been defined as political murder; many innocent people were hung, stabbed, and imprisoned for false accusations where evidence was insufficient. By accusing people of being "Red" McCarthy and Hoover ignored several amendments that given freedoms of United States citizens. First, he broke the first amendment that says people have the right to religion, speech, assembly and politics. For example, in Waterbury, Connecticut a salesman was sentenced to six months in jail for having remarked to a customer that Lenin was "brainiest" or "one of the brainiest" political leaders in the world. In 1919 a citizen of Indiana, in a fit of rage, shot and killed an alien who yelled "to hell with the United States"; the jury deliberated for two minutes before acquitting the killer.(Newman) McCarthy also ignored the fifth amendment that speaks against self incrimination and talks of how due process. In addition McCarthy saw past the eighth and ninth amendment. Amendment eight says that people could not be given excessive bail or fines and were not to be submitted to cruel and unusual punishments. Amendment nine talks of the rights retained by the people. This amendment specifically says "The enumeration in the constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people. In fact, many people produced anti-Soviet propaganda, one was called "A Guide to anti-Communist action" and another example was called "Is This Tomorrow". Twenty eight states passed laws banning the display of red flags. In addition, Hollywood responded to this hysteria by creating many films portraying Russians as bad guys. The U.S. Steel Corporation, and it's president, Judge Gary, attempted to break a strike by creating the impression that it had little to do with the demands for wages and hours but was instead a communist conspiracy and part of a larger plan to hurt American industry and help the Bolshevik revolution. U.S. Steel was also one of the many corporations that used large numbers of private detectives as labor spies. This succeeded and played a major role in escalating national anti-radical hysteria. This labor spy would infiltrate unions, urge laborers not to join unions, and promote anti-strike activities. These Astrike [emailprotected] are detecting unions one day, and Bolshevism the next. At one time U.S. steel used the