Fake news didn’t start with Donald Trump. He merely raised it to an unprecedented level. Dare I say to an un-presidented level? And that’s the last time I shall refer to him in today’s column.
Because on July 19, 1692, 326 years ago this last week, the infamous Salem witch trials in Massachusetts had their first mass execution. They hanged seven women and one man.
One woman, Bridget Bishop, had been hanged a month earlier.
Wikipedia lists 110 people executed as witches, mostly in Europe. By the 1600s, the hysteria had started to fade in Europe. But not in the Puritan colonies on this side of the Atlantic.
Salem had a reputation as a fractious town, divided by local feuds. Town meetings tended to turn into physical fights. Most histories now portray the witchcraft trials as an extension of those feuds.
For example, that first man hanged was a minister, the Rev. George Burroughs. He was often overdue paying his debts to a prominent local family, the Putnams. It seems no coincidence that the gaggle of teenage girls who made accusations against 200 or so Salem residents were led by the Putnam’s daughter Abigail.
Martha Carrier, one of those hanged July 19, had a dispute with her neighbor, Benjamin Abbott, over land boundaries. After one heated exchange, Abbott fell ill and accused Carrier of bewitching him.
A way of getting even
The malicious intent of the accusers showed up most clearly into two of the executions.
John Proctor, a respected member of Salem Village, was convinced Abigail Putnam’s girls were only pretending to be afflicted. He threatened to beat them until they confessed. They won.
Rebecca Nurse, considered pious and devout, was convicted with no credible evidence against her. Thirty-nine Salem residents risked their own safety to sign a petition on Nurse’s behalf.
The witchcraft frenzy in Salem began in February 1692. It lasted little more than one year, fading out in May 1693.
Which reinforces the common interpretation that the charges were cooked up.
The 20 persons hung during that vendetta were victims of fake news. Fabricated information, unsupported by fact.
Mob violence
What makes this more than an abstract history lesson is that this month, a 32-year-old software engineer working for Google was beaten to death in India.
While driving home from a social event, for unknown reasons, the four men stopped to hand out chocolates to local schoolgirls walking home by the side of the road. A passer-by accused the men of child-snatching. A hostile crowd gathered. The men, realizing their danger, sped off.
But they reckoned without the Internet. Some villagers used WhatsApp to circulate pictures of the men, with a description of their car. (Ironically, WhatsApp belongs to Google’s rival Facebook.)
By the time the four men got to the next village, villagers had blocked the road. A mob of “around 2,000 people,” dragged the men out of their car, “and beat them mercilessly,” according to a local member of the state legislature.
Fake news strikes again.
This was not an isolated incident.
Instantaneous effects
The problem of child abductions is real enough. In Karachi, Pakistan, over 3,000 children were kidnapped last year alone. Possibly for international adoptions. Possibly for child trafficking. Possibly for slave labour.
Indian authorities claim to have “busted” a baby-trafficking ring run by -- of all people! -- the Missionaries of Charity, the religious order founded by Mother Teresa.
But fear has led to its own problems. Rumours on WhatsApp alone have led to at least a dozen deaths in India. Twenty people have been lynched on suspicion of child abduction. A few of these incidents were apparently influenced by a staged video intended to show how easily kidnappers can seize a child.
A similar number have been lynched by so-called “cow vigilantes,” for selling beef.
India’s ruling BJP party has not yet taken any action to denounce these extra-judicial lynchings. Just as the U.S. Congress has never yet passed even one piece of anti-lynching legislation -- despite records showing that 4723 people, two-thirds of them black, have lost their lives in lynchings.
There is no way now to determine if any of those lynchings were based on hard evidence. Or how many, like the witches of Salem, were based on malicious gossip.
Once upon a time, gossip spread only by word of mouth, person to person. Now it can be instantaneous, cellphone to cellphone.
And most people, it seems, don’t know how to distinguish truth and fact from falsehood and distortion.
Which makes unfounded, untested, fake news more dangerous than ever.
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Copyright © 2018 by Jim Taylor. Non-profit use in congregations and study groups encouraged; links from other blogs welcomed; all other rights reserved.
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YOUR TURN
Last week’s column about the cave rescue in Thailand reminded Jack Driedger of his own phobias: “In Hawaii on a group holiday tour, we walked through a cave. I did not like it. There were three of us, two ladies and myself. The ladies were too slow for me. I wanted to get out of the cave, so I decided to forget about them and get out of the cave. This was years ago. I cannot forget that experience.”
Tom Watson assured me, “The ethical questions you raise are certainly not hypothetical; they're very real. Life calls us to make choices all the time and, as you say, to refuse to choose is also a choice. I make a connection with last week's column [July 8, on individualism] regarding the recent rise in individualism/nationalism fervor. We choose whether to buy into that, to resist it in all the ways possible, or to sit by and say nothing. The latter is ‘not choosing’ and it is actually the hope of the tyrannical.”
Ruth Buzzard also referred back to my column on individualism: “I’ve just been watching the victory ceremony for the World Cup. When it started to pour one umbrella was brought out. For Putin. The presidents of France and Croatia were soaked.
“During the 2010 Winter Olympics, in the Whistler Athletes’ Village, all us volunteers were invited to see our then Governor General, Michaele Jean, welcome the visiting team captains. It started to pour. An umbrella was brought out for Mme Jean, who waved it off until a dozen umbrellas had been found for everyone. No TV cameras. Just instinctive courtesy. A class act. It made me proud to be Canadian.”
Terry Carscadden circulated last week’s column to his peers and colleagues at Queen’s University, with the comment: “I took an elective course in Philosophy on Ethics and Logic from A.R.C. Duncan. I all the years I had at Queens this was one of the best courses that I took. I wonder with the recent cave episode, what Dr. Duncan would say.”
Bob Rollwagen wrote, “What happened in Thailand was amazing. Help from around the world. Individuals coming together as a team.
“[But] I am not sure that ethics was a focus. If it had continued much longer, circumstances might have forced difficult decisions, choices with no guarantees. It appeared by their action that all involved were very ethical people totally focused on rescue. For some it may have been the challenge, others have he adrenaline created by the job and results. These aspects accompanied the ethics to help get it done.
“All a far cry above political leaders who strip education programs. Who put youth at risk and lower funding for repairs to inadequate school facilities so they can reduce taxes for 5% of society [who] can use the saving for lavish travel. Worse, they do it as if it was the wish of the people when they have the support of less than half of the voting public. Tell me where ethics fits into politics.”
Steve Roney had trouble digesting the idea of a philosophy professor who taught that ethics was only a matter of personal preference: “When was that? Sounds like postmodernism. I had a prof—a religion prof!—in grad school who made that declaration. My first contact with postmodernism; it horrified me. A professor of ethics who does not believe in ethics?
“I think the error of that view is self-evident if you refer to Adolf Hitler. If you want to believe there is no right and wrong, then you have no grounds on which to disagree with what he did. You're just being prejudiced.”
Not about a specific column, but Barbara Beatty shared a story about friction in her family. “When I came clean and told my family that my partner of many years was a woman, it divided the family and I was estranged from my sister and her family for many years as she needed to protect her son from evil she perceived in me.
“It was a risk to send her one of your thoughtful columns several years ago! Not a huge one but a risk none the less. There was a long pause in our emails and then she responded with: ‘That made me stop and think!’
“Your columns have stimulated a discussion about religion and ethics I never thought would be possible.”
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TECHNICAL STUFF
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PROMOTION STUFF…
To use the links in this section, you’ll have to insert the necessary symbols. (This is to circumvent filters that think too many links constitute spam.)
Ralph Milton ’s latest project is called “Sing Hallelujah” -- the world’s first video hymnal. It consists of 100 popular hymns, both new and old, on five DVDs that can be played using a standard DVD player and TV screen, for use in congregations who lack skilled musicians to play piano or organ. More details at wwwDOTsinghallelujahDOTca
Wayne Irwin's “Churchweb Canada,” an inexpensive service for any congregation wanting to develop a web presence, with free consultation. <http://wwwDOTchurchwebcanadaDOTca>
I recommend Isabel Gibson’s thoughtful and well-written blog, wwwDOTtraditionaliconoclastDOTcom
Alva Wood’s satiric stories about incompetent bureaucrats and prejudiced attitudes in a small town -- not particularly religious, but fun; alvawoodATgmailDOTcom to get onto her mailing list.
Tom Watson writes a weekly blog called “The View from Grandpa Tom’s Balcony” -- ruminations on various subjects, and feedback from Tom’s readers. Write him at tomwatsoATgmailDOTcom or twatsonATsentexDOTnet