h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Which of these items is really a 'witch hunt'?

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/president-trump-tweets-witch-hunt-amid-ongoing-russia-investigation/

http://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2017/05/south-korea-soldier-convicted-in-outrageous-military-gay-witch-hunt/

What exactly is a 'witch hunt'? If that seems like an obvious question, apparently it isn't to Twitter, so let's think about it.

Back in the ancient days of the 17th Century, a 'witch hunt' was a hunt for witches. What did this entail?

First of all, it involved convincing people that 'witches' were a thing. According to prevailing nut job theory, there were people called witches who met in covens and worshipped the devil, a figure with horns and a tail. This devil character looked suspiciously like an old mythological forest god called Cernunnos, a sort of stag-man. According to the witch hunters, these witches made a pact with this devil which gave them special powers to hurt their neighbours. They made cows dry up, people get sick, crops fail, and the weather go crazy. If people believed this today, they would blame climate change on witch covens. Witch hunters made up 'handbooks' describing what witches did. These handbooks didn't come from practicing witches, mind you - just the nuts who were afraid of them.

In other words, witch-hunting was a conspiracy theory run amok. Those people were in serious need of Snopes.com.

Witch hunting starts with a loony theory, and ends up seeking victims to accuse in an ever-expanding, ever-nuttier 'investigation' that points fingers at anybody who's doing anything unusual, or anything that bothers the majority. It makes ordinary people nervous: they might be next on the list. Citizens start self-censoring. That's a witch hunt.

An example of a modern, figurative 'witch hunt' was the Red Scare of the 1950s in the US. According to that loony-tunes theory, there were thousands of 'communists' hiding in plain sight. Like the witches of old, they aimed to do serious harm to people with their aberrant practices and ideas. An ever-widening search for these modern-day witches took in mostly people with mildly liberal or socialist political views. The anti-communists wrote pamphlets, held hearings, and even promulgated television shows about the evil practices of these 'communists'.

Witch hunts can do a lot of harm. Witch hunts increase public paranoia.

Now, is investigating a few people for possibly breaking the law a 'witch hunt'? Naw. That's a legal procedure. If you believe those people aren't really breaking the law, and the investigators are merely being partisan, is that a 'witch hunt'? No. You may feel it's prosecutorial misconduct or merely vindictive behaviour, but it's not a witch hunt. Not unless they start rounding up half the countryside and accusing them of having friends in Russia.

I don't know if keeping our terms straight will keep the peace, but I think it might decrease the confusion.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrzMhU_4m-g

Interestingly, the OED covers both senses of the word:

* A single-minded and uncompromising campaign against a group of people with unacceptable views or behaviour, spec. communists; esp. one regarded as unfair or malicious persecution.

(1950 quote - "Inside the Labour Party there was a witch-hunt of unbelievable viciousness against the Government's critics.")


* A campaign against an individual.

(1960 quote - "The Opposition Front Bench do not intend to conduct a ‘witch-hunt’ against Mr Marples over his business connections.")



But I agree with you that the second one is just hyperbole. I think it refers more to the perceived organisation and blind devotion of the hunters rather than to the nature of the offence.

Somewhat more generalized a view, every great pogrom, every great race persecution, every great religious persecution, every great political persecution, every great iconoclasm in history has had a hypochondriacal-litigious rhetoric and rationale.

The politicos may eventually grasp that a hypochondriacal-litigious politics is politically dangerous.

To a lesser extent, a similar concept has been applied to industry. If you want to conduct organisational change, you will always encounter opposition to it. The way around this is to start by scaring people with a sense of urgency. It's enshrined in the popular methodology known as 'Kotter's 8 Steps' - Step 1 is 'Establish a sense of urgency':

http://www.educational-business-articles.com/8-step-process/

Other steps (or sub-steps) include:

– Identify and discuss crises, potential crises or opportunities.

– Using every channel and vehicle of communication possible to communicate the new vision and strategies.

– Removing obstacles to change.

– Changing systems or structures that seriously undermine the vision.


Basically, you have to conduct a dictatorial pogrom to get anything done in the office.

I recognise the 8 steps from personal experience... "We need to save money *now* so we need to recruit a group of people to remove "obstacles"..."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-40357357