Waddling through the sea of people exiting a theatre2 when, suddenly, “fire!” The crowd is whipped into a bout of hysteria. People rush forth like rats, trampling those who are to slow in their path. McCarthyism represents a regression to a heart filled with suspicion, paranoia, and panic. Perhaps surprisingly, there is a universality to this function of human mob behaviour that transcends era. For instance, in the late 1600s of Salem, Massachusetts, as dramatized by playwright Arthur Miller in The Crucible, witches are accused and convicted on nonexistent or very shallow evidence, which could not be corroborated. Not-so-incidentally, the same trend prevailed during the era of McCarthyism. All that it took to be “disgraced” was to be
