How Did ‘Witch Hunt’ Become the Complaint of the Powerful?

I’m not sure I’ll ever really understand Donald Trump but here’s a fascinating article on the psychology of his self-serving paranoia.

How Did ‘Witch Hunt’ Become the Complaint of the Powerful?

“The figures in Trump’s demonology all have one thing in common: They all threaten the legitimacy of his claim of genuine popular support. Once they are over, hunts reveal not witches but our own doubts. When these imagined threats evaporate, they leave exposed our fears about the fragility of our hold on power, fears that then fulfill themselves. As Arthur Miller wrote, “the paranoid creates the reality which proves him right.” Witch hunts can refract, rebound and replicate indefinitely — because we each contain within us the hunter, the witch, the rack and the pyre. And fear, like fire, catches.”

Extract from https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/06/magazine/how-did-witch-hunt-become-the-complaint-of-the-powerful.html

Credit: Illustration by Derek Brahney

— Shomit

 

Posted in Blog on Tuesday, June 13, 2017
Tagged with Donald Trump, Paranoia, press, Witch Hunt

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