THE HOLLYWOOD BLACKLIST
It’s important to be reminded of the Hollywood blacklisting that President Reagan has said did not take place.
It was, of course, only one example of the paranoia during the Red Scare of the McCarthy Era, a paranoia which seems endemic to the American culture and which comes to a boil whenever progressives find success in challenging erroneous thinking within the status quo.
Having the experiences of people like the Hollywood Ten and J. Robert Oppenheimer made known serves to personalize the suffering experienced by so many because of that popular irrational fear. I’m thinking particularly of the thousands of federal employees dismissed under President Eisenhower’s security program.
Stupidity seems to be a philosophy all its own, and certainly knows no political definition.
RONALD WEBSTER
Long Beach
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