Movie - Good Night and Good Luck. McCarthyism looks a lot like being a Dub

by pratt1 4 Replies latest jw experiences

  • pratt1
    pratt1

    I just saw this movie this weekend and I highly recommend it.

    This movie depicts how Edward R. Murrow openly fought Sen. McCarthy and his witch hunt for Communist sympathizers.

    It is a fact that many peoples lives were ruined because rumored or fabricated information was provided to the Anti American Activities commission about so called communist affilations. There was one striking example of how a woman who worked for the Armed Forces as a transmitter was accused of being a communist. She lost her job and was called to testify in front of the committee and never were her accusers identified or was any information regarding the accussations every shown to her or her attorney. Meanwhile her carreer and reputation had been ruined.

    It reminded me of the position that many of us have found ourselves in while we were Dubs. A rumor or lie can convict you of being an apostate, with the resulting damage that can happen to because of the accussation.

    At the core of this story is the fact that association with people with differing ideolgies does not mean that you are disloyal to your own belief structure.

    The duds have this same problem. Why can't you read information that is different from their beliefs.

    I applaud those who have stood up to those tyrants that would label you as a traitor just because you have a thrust for knowledge and want to examine material other than whats published by the WTBS.

  • Golf
    Golf

    Did you ever get a channce to read Myron C Fagan's "Documentaions of the REDS and Fellow Travelers in Hollywood and TV?" Mr. Fagan cites 300 hundred well known names. If his accusations were untrue, he would have been sued but never was.

    Golf

  • sf
    sf
    The duds

    LOL!!! I love it!

    Heya {{{ GOLF }}}, nice to see you.

    sKally

  • Golf
    Golf

    Greetings Skally. Pratt1, you may want to do some research on Elizabeth Dilling, she wrote a book titled, "The Roosevelt Red Record and It's Background." They tried to shut her up but couldn't.


    Golf

  • sea_mac
    sea_mac

    When I saw that trailer, I thought the film would probably ring a few bells for me.

    Lately I've been doing a lot of reading on the history of the Cultural Revolution in China, and what really strikes me is how much it all reminds me of my years as a JW, the incredible social pressure to conform, to parrot the party line as blindly and loudly as possible (in my cong, if you didn't answer at least once during a meeting, someone was going to talk to you about it), the rigorous self-control that was required not to think for myself (because the minute you do, it's all over). I've seen those parallels in other writings on totalitarian systems, specifically Orwell's "1984." I'm betting that the McCarthy era was a lot like that, particularly in how fear was used as a tool of control. And we know all about that, not so much the fear of dying at Armaggedon but the fear of "the world," how everyone in the world is just rotten to the core and out to get you. Of course, as a good Witness, you have no contacts in "the world" and thus no way to refute that assertion.

    Wow, this has struck a nerve in me that just wants to go off, even after 20 years of freedom. I'm Melinda, btw. New here, having just found this group today.

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