The Danger of Ideology

• An ideology is a rigid set of beliefs that defines what an individual or community thinks.
• In the Puritan theocracy of Massachusetts, a government run by religious authorities, the dominant ideology held that the Puritans were a chosen people that the devil would do anything to destroy. 
• Since religious men ran their government, the Puritans considered all government actions to be necessarily "good," or sanctioned by Heaven.
• This meant that any attempt to question, obstruct, or otherwise resist any of the government's actions, no matter how ludicrous, destructive, or ill-informed, was considered by the government and other Puritans to be an attempt to overthrow God.
• Governments fueled by such rigid and absolute ideological convictions often fall into corruption and tyranny without even realizing it.
• In The Crucible, Deputy Governor Danforth and Judge Hathorne believe that they're emissaries of God, and therefore that everything they believe must be true and everything they do must be right.
• They never see a reason to reassess their thoughts and actions, which makes them easy targets for cynical and talented liars like Abigail Williams. Characters like Abigail recognize the court's narrow-minded worldview and manipulate it to their own selfish advantage.