Now it occurs to me that almost all of us have heard of the crucible as the title of Arthur Miller's play, and when we hear it, we instantly think of the Salem Witch Trials. However, our attention seems to slide past the meaning of the title in a way that almost seems to make "The Salem Witch Trials" the title of the play. What is a crucible? It's odd that after years of hearing about it, I never asked that simple question of myself.
     A crucible is defined as the following in Merriam Webster's Dictionary:
1: a vessel of a very refractory material (as porcelain) used for melting and calcining a substance that requires a high degree of heat
2: a severe test
3: a place or situation in which concentrated forces interact to cause or influence change or development <conditioned by having grown up within the crucible of Chinatown — Tom Wolfe>

Now I think that the most accurate application to this story is definitely the first definition, right? The crucible is nothing more than an allegory for a melting pot. Never mind. Now definition 3 has merit. It could pertain to the role of the courts and their interactions with, and attempts to improve, the situation in Salem. I however, am inclined not to agree with either of these definitions.
      The last remaining definition is simply "a severe test". To begin, it has a dramatic negative connotation; a kind of grim sense of hardship. More to the point however, the Salem Witch Trials were a test of peoples' characters. A test at which the town of Salem failed horribly. The town lost itself to hysteria over the tomfoolery of a group of girls, and hung many innocent and good people. They were even more-so at fault when their convictions were made under the assumption that they were doing God's work. I happen not to believe in god, and this is an extreme form of one of my reasons for that, but I imagine that for those who do believe in god, they'll interpret this as "befouling god's name", or something. The most important point though is that the Salem Witch Trials gave egotistical men the opportunity to ignore society's rules and to commit murder for greed and anger, and they took this opportunity. I can't imagine a worse failure of human character in society that. Well, maybe the Third Reich.



Why is the word "blog" not recognized by the blogger spell check?! That has to be the stupidest thing I've ever heard, ha!

How to unveil a Witch...?

         So, suppose you've gone nuts in 1692. You believe that your neighbor, a totally rude guy who used to steal your lunch or something, has to go. You want to accuse him of being a creepy cackling witch. So what do you do to get proof that's so convincing, that the other panicking townsfolk in Salem are willing to overlook the fact that this "witch" of yours is a guy (maybe he's a warlock)? Take your pick of the two most effective methods available to you:

Pressing:
      Ok, so basically you kick down your neighbor's door, grab him and put the door on top of him (spare boards work great too). Next you start chucking rocks on top of him to test his squishability. The result will be one of three things: 1) He could confess to witchcraft and the townsfolk would believe you, 2)He'll die under the crushed rocks and you've killed an innocent man, or 3)He actually is a witch and he jumps up and starts chasing you screaming Avada Kedavra.

The Witch Cake
      Now, you're taking care of your neighbor's dog, and you discover that you've run out of kibble. You oddly enough decide that the best solution to this problem is to make him a fluffy "witch cake". You go the the cupboard and look in the locally printed Cooking for Dummies manual. The ingredients are all in the pantry except for the final ingredient: witch urine...(use your imagination here)...after you've cooked up this lovely 5 star meal, you feed it to the poor unsuspecting dog. Now you gather the townsfolk and present them with this oddity, announcing that your neighbor is clearly a witch if he retains a sensory connection with this cake. If the cake is in pain (i.e. through consumption by a dog), then so is the man. Foolproof right?

Warning: 20 people were killed in the making of this blog.


Author's Note: Despite my attempts to use humor as the backbone for this entry, I mourn the truth behind it. Both these methods were used (though I put my own twist on them) in the Salem witch trials, often in the case of pressing, fatally.

The Puritans' American Dream

      The separate beliefs of Puritan society can be included in the American dream or not, depending on whose dream it is. They wanted to create their own utopia, they wanted religious freedom, but they also wanted everyone who didn't share their dream at the bottom of a well. If this adds anything to our knowledge of the American Dream, it's that it wasn't a dream for everyone or else that American Dream is somewhat of an oxymoron in the sense that they tend to conflict in a very non-dreamlike way. To put this into a simple example: two rival business owners. Each's American Dream involves their own company succeeding. This isn't possible without the other company going completely bankrupt. In what way is that in tune with the positive connotation of the American Dream?
      Despite our best efforts to attach a solid definition, and indeed as many of us have already described in no small amount of detail, you cannot set the American dream in cement. The Puritans no doubt had their own interpretations as do we all. But perspectives such as these are most commonly taught to the public in one dimension: one that can be easily grasped by the audience. Take for example the relatively common ideas of good and evil. Even these are interchangeable based on an individual's perspective. An evil man never believes himself to be evil. He thinks that he is doing the right thing, and that the good guys are the misguided ones. And maybe he would be the right one in the broad sceme of things. To tie this all back, were the Puritans really so radical? From their perspective they were in the right mindset and everyone else was corrupt. Whether the connotations that society gave them are deserved is irrelevant. you could just as easily ask the same question about the Puritans' views on society: were society's flaws in the eyes of the puritans deserved?

       Alright, this is my first attempt at a blog, so bear with me here. I'm a little short on ideas as I'm more interested in technology and engineering than topics such as the social implications of the American dream. I understand its value, but it may not be my can of worms. Running through the things mentioned so far in the course, I'll try to mix it up and do a few of the less prevalent topics discussed. Now I figure Fred might seize the opportunity to write about flavor blasted goldfish or something, so that leaves the Internet. We discussed the development of the social networks, and indeed that is why we're writing blogs, not letters or - I don't know - bulletin board articles.
       The Internet serves as a highly effective means of expanding, as well as organizing, our interests. Online accounts allow us to connect our self quickly and effortlessly with interesting information. Google in particular seems to be moving in that direction. Think about it: a google account has so many different products including Gmail, igoogle's widgets (jokes of the day, weather, headlines, etc), this blogger.com site, google docs, etc. If you had to have a separate account for each of those, all on separate websites. You would never be able to stay organized since the Internet is just such a massive labyrinth of data.
       In fact the sheer scale of the Internet is creating a social phenomenon in which all the social networks; twitter, facebook, etc, are viewed by many as a negative influence on a person's life. I, though I don't have such accounts believe that it's not their existence that causes the problem, it's merely the sheer enormity of the Internet. If you have millions of people connected to these websites, unless you find a place to draw the line, it becomes ridiculously easy to lose yourself in a deluge of such data. This makes the internet both a useful link to ways to bring interest into our lives, yet it can be in the case of those who use it lightly, superfluous.

       This is just something to think about. Please post if you found this informative, interesting, or else if you wish to debate a point that I made.