The Red Scare
Earlier in the week, I posted about a play where the characters were radicals and their parents were all communists. That led me to ask why communism was popular in the 40s and 50s. Now I can comfortably say I have an answer.
After the stock market crashed in 1929, the great depression followed. This was not the only ‘depression’ in the nations history, but it was the worst. There were, in fact, six depressions around that time, you can read about some of them. So the great depression showed people a new side of life, with no sign of a program similar to welfare in sight. It was also proof that an unregulated capitalism could lead to bad things. People were looking for a stable system, and what would be better than one that everybody was equal in, ruled by one power hungry person. A dictatorship looked like the only form of government that could actually get anything done, and improve their way of life.
Sadly, it did not turn out that way. The rich turned out super rich, but the poor were dirt poor. After the great depression, communism continued. One senator from Wisconsin decided to try to do something about it in the 50s. I guess it worked because now there is a lot of conservative propaganda about communism and such, even still.
In this entry, I was sort of afraid to say that it was “popular” in the 30s-50s, but it did gain popularity. Now there are a lot more ‘communists’ than there were back then. Wow, how people interpret the 1st ammendment really changes over time.