The first “Red Scare”, extreme anti-communist sentiment and fear, lasted from 1919-1920 in the United States. Communist fear lasted well beyond the 1920’s, and into the Great Depression era. There were over 150,000 anarchists or communists in the United States in 1920 alone and this represented only 0.1% of the overall population of the USA. From the 1920s to the late 1930s, American culture learned to loathe Communism.
I think it is important to acknowledge that the “Red Scare” was a real incident in American History; Americans truly saw Communism as a threat to Capitalism and “American life”. “Waiting for Lefty” confronts 1930’s issues of class and Communism. I think this play can parallel issues of our current climate as well, such as xenophobia. The play refers to communists or those thought to be communists as “reds”. In the post 9/11 American world there has been extreme paranoia and anti-immigration sentiment towards Muslims and Arabs. Any thoughts on this comparison?
http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=1586
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/red_scare_1920s_America.htm
unfortunately all forms of discrimination are more or less instinctual. it is part of our biology to group things together. 99% of the time the first grouping is a question of familiar and unfamiliar. things that are unfamiliar (whether its is an idea, a belief or a group of people) usually throw up red flags in the mind.
ReplyDeleteWhen, like in the 20's and 30's, there is a lot of discontent or negative feelings we look to classify the source. this is also called scapegoating. Bin Ladin, Al Qieda, Sadam Husein were all outlets for our "9/11 aggression" like I think the reds were for the 20's and 30's. social inequalities led people to ask why does this suck? without knowing what communism was they attacked. Very good questions though, I could write another term paper on this kind of stuff.
Josh
p.s. your so amazing, chipper and insightful Stephanie. definitely an A++ in the class.
I disagree that discrimination is instinctual. Personally, I think that discrimination is a learned behavior that we adapt from the society that surrounds us. Although I agree that scapegoating is a definite cause of the red scare, I also think there were more political factors at work that caused this fear. Like Stephanie said, Americans saw Communism as a threat to Capitalism and in an economic climate where Capitalism seems to be failing for the masses, the only way to stop people from turning to an alternative economic platform is to essentially tarnish that platform.
ReplyDeleteI think it is interesting that the idea of the red scare has been a recurring theme through out american history. I believe stephanie is right you can find the same paranoia recurring involving ethnic groups "the mexicans are taking our jobs" it seems this comes up at least once a year in my life and the immigrant scape goat has long been a figure in domestic politics. its interesting to note that unions are still an item of controversy(organization of the proletariat) many years after their legalization and protection.
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