"Witch"

"Witch"  (Enemy image)
An enemy image used in the Middle Ages that was acted as a cover for expropriation of property, a forerunner of the modern day "terrorist"

"Witches" were the subject intense persecution in medieval Europe. Mostly but not exclusively female, they were believed to be a supernatural and malign influence on society. Complex systems of beliefs about witchcraft were developed, with emphasises on the need for authorities to defend people against ("She is in league with the devil, bring the bishop here to exercise the sprit from her... " etc.)

Social control

This proved an effective means of social control and was used to enforce existing hierarchies of religion, social class and especially gender.

Modern parallels

"Islamophobia" and the "war on terror" is seen by some as a parallel to the witch-hunts of medieval Europe.

 

Related Quotation

Page	Quote	Author	Date
Human sacrifice	“While documentation of the widespread existence of Satanic human sacrifice cults is lacking, evidence of other forms of systematic human sacrifice is available. Two examples in modern history are the Catholic Inquisition, a human sacrifice cult of a religious-theological nature, and the Third Reich, a human sacrifice cult of a military-political nature. (In calling the Inquisition and the Third Reich cults, I am using the word in a broad, informal, and unscholarly sense, to mean an organized group driven by a well-elaborated theological doctrine, which for the Nazis was Aryan racial mysticism.) The fact that the Catholic Inquisition and the Third Reich were both run by middle-class, Caucasian, educated individuals from Judaeo-Christian cultures suggests that it is psychologically possible for ordinary middle-class citizens to be perpetrating such crimes in North America today, especially given the high level of violence in contemporary Western societies.”	Colin Ross	1995

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