The End

What I'm about to say in this blog is sort of a reflection of my paper. Fear seemed to be in the driver's seat in the 1940s. But as much as it was a detterant it was also an enabler. For instance, fear of the unknown (similar to the Harry Potter article) caused a mass censor on communist related issues, but at the same time enabled those same groups/believers to exist in a secluded state. I realize that basic survival was a huge issue, but the fact that blacklisted people got around this issue via fronts and were still able to promote their same ideas, is a little puzzling. What exactly was the purpose of the blacklist? As Bernstein's memoir is just one account, is the futility of the blacklist reflective in other accounts? I'm curious as to whether we can look back at other events in history that were censored and come up with a similar conclusion. But then, by looking back, are we not in a sense censoring ourselves with the knowledge we havc today, instead of looking at the events with an eye of the times?