I’ve been hearing, lately, about the proliferation of witches in late 17th century New England. Apparently, there were quite a number of people identified as such. A penetrating gaze into the eyes of a young girl suffering adolescent angst could result in an accusation of witchery. Men, women and children were found to be guilty and imprisoned. Two dogs were determined to be witches and executed. Widespread frenzy turned son against parent, husband against wife, child against family pet. Witches were seen flying about on broomsticks, gathering in covens, casting evil spells. The guilty were brought before Judge William Stoughton, who, supported by the likes of Cotton Mather, tried and executed the guilty.

Anyway, this got me thinking about current alternative realities which seem to be proliferating these days. It seems all it takes is for a localized majority or a community of like-minds, egged on by media venues that know a good thing when they see it, to distill the complexities of modern life into a palatable elixir. Upon consumption everything becomes crystal clear. Black and white eliminates those difficult shades of gray, good and evil become clearly defined and it becomes very evident there is no room for compromise.

Well, apparently what happened in Salem was that some astute individual saw the witch hunts as disrupting business as usual; it was bad for the economy and in very short order the issue was dropped. After all is said and done pragmatism rules, I guess.

I’ve been thinking, lately, about how much time I spend thinking. I find contemplation to be a very important part of my daily regimen, to the extent that social interaction is non-existent some days; a lot of days, really.

Of course much of my thinking is about people, wondering about how some folks arrive at the opinions they hold, how groups of like-minds take on a public identity which lifts individuals out of their private worlds and offers a public character which seems to be what a lot of people crave. On a personal level, social networking is pretty easy, social media being what it is, and, I guess, having a large group of ‘friends’ tends to fend off perceived loneliness even if it is delusional (any sort of personal closeness, that is).

If social striving and seeking public identity gets out of hand, if popularity is too high a priority, danger lurks. When you think of individuals in the spot-light these days it’s unlikely anyone’s public persona provides much more than a caricature; which certainly can’t be what anyone wants. Better to spend more time thinking.