A friend remarked recently about the political landscape and mentioned the words “witch hunt.” This seemed surprising as she is more the moderate.
The reason referenced was that a national political figure often complaining of being hounded by that hunt had seemingly cast a spell on a large number of people and was holding sway with them on a host of issues and platforms. This was despite, and perhaps in spite of, what could be reasonably seen as the swayed citizen’s better sensibilities and real interests.
While I do not believe in witches, I do believe there are those that have the surreal ability to both persuade and assuage wide swaths of folks to “think” a certain (and uncertain) way about stuff which frightens them at personal and political pools deep and wide; as well as at their shorelines.
Those folks at the top of their game in mass inducements are adept and adroit at linking those fears and concerns with either a sense of being “wronged” about something or some kind of personal gain — preferably both.
There are infamous illustrations at top of mind and tip of the tongue in our world’s history and evidences aplenty for us to do some comparisons and analysis. The scope and breadth of those ensnared in a trance by word wizardry and personal paralysis can be boggling.
These references tend to have a form that follows a graph which looks like the shape of a church bell’s curvatures (bell curve). There are a smaller number who join early, most are at the middle and again fewer toward the end.
Conversely, there’s a smaller lot who leave earlier, more who shift away when discomforts become more overwhelming, and then lastly, the narrow stream of adamants and decided die-hards dedicated to the dead-end.
Ding-dong.
Philip L M Vaughan
Lake Edward Township