Title: Such Men are Dangerous: The Fanatics of 1692 and 2004

Author: Frances Hill

ISBN: 0942679288

The Following review was contributed by: Paul Lappen: To view Paul Lappen's other reviews click here: Paul Lappen's Reviews

This book compares the men behind the Salem Witchcraft
Trials of 1692 to the Bush II Administration. The
comparisons are distressingly close.

Massachusetts of the 1690s was a very rigid sort of
place. Those in power were ideologues who believed
that their version of Calvinism was the only way and
the only truth. Everyone who came to Massachusetts was
required by law to attend Puritan services. Belonging
to any other church was forbidden, on pain of
banishment or hanging. All dissent was equated to
bonding with the devil. The Puritans believed you were
"either with us or against us." Since Massachusetts
thought itself a place where anyone could find work,
poverty was considered a sign of general immorality
and probable damnation.

America in 2004 is a place where those on the bottom
are blamed instead of helped. Prisons are full of
victims of poverty, and each year scores of Americans
are legally executed. It stems from a point of view of
self-seeking masquerading as righteousness, without
regard for social justice. Selfishness is a virtue.
Those who can't make it economically are wicked and
contemptible. Today's leaders are as inhumane and
self-righteous as those of 300 years ago.

Paul Wolfowitz and Minister Cotton Mather tried to
emulate their famous fathers. They both also see only
what they want to see, and are slippery and
self-serving in argument. Deputy Governor William
Stoughton and Donald Rumsfeld both hold rigid
ideological views, lack humanity and mercy, and are
war mongers and hypocrites. Stoughton and Dick Cheney
are willing to bend their view of the world to
accommodate their pursuit of wealth and power.
Magistrate John Hathorne and Richard perle were not
part of their respective elites, but they were the
first to push their respective agendas. Governor
William Phips and George Bush were intellectually
lacking, but they did have a talent for forming
alliances and cultivating people. They also had very
foul mouths and furious tempers, and owed everything
to family connections.

It's disheartening to know that Americans have evolved
so little in 300 years. This is quite an eye-opener of
a book. An interest in Massachusetts of the 1690s
would be a big help, but this is still fascinating and
thought-provoking. Highly recommended.