In Humanities, we read a book called The Crucible, by Arthur Miller. We then read a portion of a book about McCarthyism, and then we related the two to each other and current day. We made connections between the three and eventually wrote an essay about it. We chose a subject that related to it, such as power or reputation or a few others. I chose reputation. My essay was mostly about how people fight for power by gaining influence, and lot’s of times that ends up in getting a bad reputation.

 

Blinded by Bias

 

It’s impossible to see someone without bias. Throughout history, people have strived to gain a good reputation, while some others gain a bad one. Reputation is how someone is seen and thought of. No matter what, someone has a reputation, good, bad, or something else, you can have a reputation for something that isn’t either good or bad, but something in between. A person’s reputation changes how others see them, either for the better or worse, that is the case in multiple scenarios, back in 1692, when the Salem witch trials were happening, to the McCarthy Era in the 1950s, and also modern day. Having a good reputation can save someone’s life, but a bad one could end it.

Back in 1692, when civilization in America was just starting to withstand what the New World could throw at them, the people of Salem, Massachusetts started fighting amongst themselves. People were accusing each other of witchcraft, and people were dying left and right, just because someone said they were a witch. Although their lives were at risk, people still had things to lose. “PROCTOR: I have made a bell of my honor! I have rung the doom of my good name! (Miller, p.95)” Proctor was desperate to keep his reputation. He kept his secrets from everyone, his friends, family, the church and the government. He did so because he knew it would ruin his reputation if he shared. He committed adultery, and wanted to hide it from everyone. He didn’t admit that he had an affair until his wife, Elizabeth, was on trial for witchcraft and was accused by Abigail, whom Proctor had an affair with. Proctor threw all his work to hide from what he did all away to save his wife in exchange for his good name, his reputation. Proctor’s reputation was extremely important to him, but he wasn’t the only one that wanted to keep his pride. Still, in the 1950s, things like this were still happening.

In the McCarthy era, aging from February 1950 to December 1954, Senator Joseph McCarthy was hungry for power. He was desperate to come back into office, so he used a list of people in government that he said were communists, when really it was a list of people applying for a job. He sent America into hysteria, and people were accusing one another all over the country. He also told lies to influence people to follow him. “McCarthy often exaggerated his war record to help his political career. For example, he was photographed in the rear seat, or a tail gun position, of a dive bomber and called himself ‘Tailgunner Joe,’ which led voters to believe he had fought bravely in combat… Most of his work had been behind a desk.” (Fitzgerald p. 41). In this situation, McCarthy lied about his war experiences in order to get respect from others to become more influential. They thought that he was tough and had fought through wars when in reality he had spent most of his time doing work at a desk. He also claimed that his broken foot was a wound from the war, when in reality it was broken from when he fell off a ladder at a party. McCarthy’s influence got smaller and smaller as he kept avoiding people that asked to see the list by saying things like, it’s in my other suit, or I forgot it on the plane, when in reality, he didn’t have it. He also, whenever questioned, reduced the number of suspected communists and then accused someone with a large role in the government to distract them while he thought of a way to avoid their suspicion. His reign finally ended after he accused the army of going soft on communists. The army then sent Joseph N. Welch, a soft-spoken lawyer to represent them. He caught and destroyed every one of McCarthy’s accusations, and McCarthy progressively got angrier and angrier, accusing and insulting many people with high positions in the government. Finally, he accused someone in Welch’s law firm, Frederick G. Fisher, of being a long time member of a legal arm of the Communist Party. Welch then famously replied, “Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last?” The hearings in the Army came to a close a week later and McCarthy was put as a reckless bully, his reputation dropped from someone with so much power and influence that he could send the entire country into hysteria, to a bully. He died three years later in 1957, still in office. The strife for reputation and power didn’t end there though, even in modern day, 60 years after McCarthy and 325 years after the Salem witch trials, people still are desperate for power.

The current president of the U.S, Donald Trump, had a campaign for presidency that was completely based on lies and fear of terrorism, much like McCarthy’s fight against Communism. Much like before, people were hysteric, confused and angry. People were blocking others out and gaining a bad reputation for it. “If you are a superb businessman with a sterling reputation, you’ll see the value of reputation in higher prices you can demand, higher volume of sales, less turnover by employees, better terms from vendors and easier credit terms. People want to be in business with you. If, however, your reputation is that of an incompetent blowhard and sleazy guy, you’re not going to be able to charge as much for hotel rooms (or fill them up), keep good employees and get favorable terms from vendors and creditors. You may even get harsher treatment from regulators and juries/judges who view you with suspicion.” (Rubin, Washington Post Journalist, published on October 18, 2016 https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/wp/2016/10/18/brands-come-and-go-but-damage-to-trumps-reputation-will-last/?utm_term=.29c24064ebd4). In this article by Jennifer Rubin, a journalist in the Washington Post, she was talking about how reputation affects people, specifically Trump, and how it can damage how people view someone. Someone who is known for scamming people or something along those lines is less likely to be treated as well as someone who is known for something good in most people’s eyes. As the quote says, people will treat you differently depending on how they see you. Someone’s good reputation can be bad in someone else’s eyes, and it can change on a dime. One wrong move and it can go right down the drain. “Unfortunately, once your reputation goes down the drain, your reputational value often goes to “zero — fast,” It’s binary, as we saw with Tiger Woods; you’re either worth a lot of people don’t want you at all.” (Kossovsky,  President and chief executive of Steel City Re https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/wp/2016/10/18/brands-come-and-go-but-damage-to-trumps-reputation-will-last/?utm_term=.29c24064ebd4 October 18, 2017) This shows how, generally, people either have a good reputation, or a bad one, there really isn’t a middle point.

Even still, people work through hell to get a good reputation, but many people end up getting a bad one either way. It matters so much to some people that they will even kill one another to try for a reputation. History really does repeat itself, people throughout history all over the world have strived for reputation and power, many of the time by throwing down others and expressing what people are scared of to show that they are tough enough to face their fears. From back in the Salem Witch Trials, where people were striving to get a good reputation to avoid getting hanged, to the McCarthy period, where people who people thought were “different” sometimes got accused of being communist. All the way to modern day, where people are being pushed out of America for being different, usually by being Muslim, mostly because of Trump’s lies, where he said all Muslims were terrorists. No matter what, people have bias, if no one did, no one would have opinions. If no one had a reputation, no one would ever have any power and everyone would be equal, would the world be better without the thought of reputations?