It is a commonly held, and largely mistaken, belief that the United States of America was founded on religious tolerance and freedom. Far from the truth this is, however...nearly the opposite, in fact. The founders of this country, the Puritans, were strict and vengeful in their religious practices...so zealous and firm about prayer-this and holy-that that they actually left their native country so that they could live out their strict, vengeful lives alone. The Puritans were singular in their cause, and uniform in their thoughts. In order to drive out the Devil, you must do this, not eat this, drink this, and so on. Violators and dissenters were purged, whether it be burning, hanging, drowning, or stoning (oh-so-many ways to die in the Colonies).
And we carry this on, even today. Whether we know it or not, Americans still engage in this intolerance of differing views and opinions...if we see it as a threat, whether it truly is or not, it is dealt with.
Communism was no different. The "Reds" and "Commies" were persecuted because they believed in something that was simply different. Many of these Communists were simply out to get better wages for their families. And then history caught up with itself, skipped back to the first track, and repeated. The government framed and the people blamed and they became an amorphous mob of seething anger and raging bigotry.
First there were the Palmer Raids, and then McCarthyism, followed by the Hollywood Blacklist. The United States feared conspiracy from all sides during the aftermath of the first World War, all the way into the end (and beyond) of the second World War. Prejudice is a strikingly popular national pastime in America: one that we are doomed to continue.
After the victory in the World War One made the...
Communism
this essay was slieghtly erratic, i'm still not sure weather the writer was for or against the practises of the men he biographied. unfortunatly, the writer did not seem to relize that the puritans came to america to practise religious beliefs, that was the point of coming from america, the seperation of church and state was formed to prvent what had happend in britain, they did not want a forced religion. they held their practises to keep their personal religion pure, and so when these men were fighting comunism, they were trying to keep the country pure from comunist's, unfortunatly, thay had the wrong reasons, and their activitys can be dubbed racist etc. this essay did have some valid points concerning that topic, but also had a rather confused thesis.
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