Cancel Culture and The Crucible Essay Example

The Crucible was written not just as a story of the Salem witch trials, but also to show Arthur Miller's opinions on the red scare. The scathing opinion comes from Miller himself being falsely accused of being a communist. The second red scare was thought of in such a way due to the ridiculous ways that the government used to determine who is a communist. Due to the way the second red scare panned out, it remains as a warning to groupthink, as it exemplifies the ways that using groupthink can cause not only errors in judgement but also amplify said errors. Another example of groupthink is not historic, however it is relevant in today’s society. I believe that cancel culture is an example of groupthink and clearly shows its harmful effects and why it can so easily cause harm.

Cancel culture is the act of a large group of people “canceling” a specific group/person who had done something that they deemed offensive in order to mitigate the harm spread by the individual, whether real or imagined. This cancellation can take place through direct messaging, posts, and other methods generally utilizing social media. This relates back to The Crucible as it demonstrates a similar mob mentality, polarizing people’s ideologies and harshly punishing/criticizing those who don’t follow said ideals. An example from the Crucible would be  Martha Corey. Martha did not believe in and did  not know much about witches, and because of her ignorance it made her seem more suspicious as everyone around her seemed to believe in witches. Another similarity between the two is their lasting effects on its victims; in The Crucible, the accused’s reputation is destroyed, with them being thought of as consorting with the devil because of false accusations. In the example of cancel culture, those who have said things many years ago have their old tweets or messages dug up, or possibly even have false accusations made by others in order to “kick them when they are down”. This kind of attack is an example of mob mentality and can unjustifiably damage or destroy the careers of those who do not deserve it.

To summarize, the behaviors and mindset seen in The Crucible and cancel culture are very similar, with groupthink being used widely in both. Cancel culture’s amplification of people’s past wrongdoings and oversensitivity to others opinions and beliefs as well as the similarities between The Crucible’s mass hysteria and accusations of witchcraft, along with cancel culture’s calling for the firing of others or the ruining of their reputations and careers.