Every generation needs a boogeyman.

[TeddyW]

His wounded mind so desperately wanted a war, that it twisted reality to manufacture one; giving him a much-needed enemy to prove himself heroic.

Quixote measured his worth purely by the battle and the entire time he was really only fighting himself. His identity as courageous warrior was merely a mirage he dreamt up to justify the fight.

My generation had Satanic Panic. Parents feared that satan worshipers were ritually abusing children. The stories fed upon themselves. Psychologists got in the business of “recovered memories”, now-discredited. Parents saw evidence where there was none, until there were more than ten thousand police reports of ritual abuse. They weren’t substantiated.

“When people get emotionally involved in an issue, common sense and reason go out the window. People believe what they want and need to believe.”.

The Salem witch trials were not an anomaly. We create an enemy in times of peace. We gravitate to a cause.