An icy moon illuminates the autumnal forest. The chorus of cackling young women join the woodland’s night symphony, magic in their hands and evil in their hearts. With murderous intent, they invoke the devil to carry out their evil plots, knowing they will hang in the gallows if discovered. Thus goes a typical accusation, or more likely, assumption, of innocent witch hunt victims. To their accusers, having stumbled upon some misfortune or strange illness, there could be no better explanation than secretive people up to no good.
There is little doubt that true devil worshipers existed in ages past, and there were people carrying out esoteric rituals with the full intent to cause harm to others. However, the persecution of witches went well above and beyond targeting only the truly malicious. It is tragic to consider this loss of innocent life when we now know that there is no such thing as witchcraft at all. No amount of forest dancing or complex incantations could possibly harm another person at a distance. Our current understanding of physics and the laws of nature confidently prove this to be the case, but what if physical laws were different? Do we have the right to persecute witches in either case?
While exploring the center of the galaxy, the Enterprise crew encounters a new alien, Lucien, who takes them to his home planet, Megas-tu. The different laws of physics on Megas-tu allow for the possibility of magic and witchcraft, and its inhabitants have lived on Earth before. They were persecuted by humans during the Salem witch trials and have harbored animosity toward the human species ever since. Like the Q Continuum (link), the Megans put humanity on trial for the sins of the past and then threaten to eternally banish Lucien for exposing them to humans in the first place. Kirk defends both humanity and Lucien, arguing that we have progressed far beyond the old dark ages, and his new alien friend doesn’t deserve such an extreme punishment.
If witchcraft were real, like it is on Megas-tu, it would be reasonable that the people of Salem would want to take action to protect themselves. On this basis, witch hunts would be ethical as a form of self defense, but what if the magic in question is a hoax? In hindsight, the Salem witch trials were an embarrassing part of human history because we know unequivocally that magic does not exist, so every victim of the trials was guaranteed to be one hundred percent innocent. However, for the ultra religious, and superstitious, community of 1600s Massachusetts, their belief had real moral implications. If a person wanted to cause harm or death, and intentionally performed a ritual to carry it out, are they guilty of attempted murder even if the ritual had no chance of success? In law, conspiracy is considered a criminal act; one can be guilty of conspiring to carry out a murder even if the actual murder is never carried out. It is defined as planning or preparing for the crime. Even though witchcraft is an ineffective murder method, the planning of a crime is still a part of the thought process. How close to being viable and successful does a conspiracy need to be for it to be a crime? Should Guy Fawkes be found totally innocent since not a single person was harmed by his gun powder plot? Is a teenager with a spell book guilty of some criminal mischief?
When considering conspiracy as the main immoral mechanism, all the witches who ever plotted to destroy crops or murder people are in fact criminals. If the punishment for most crimes back in the day was a short drop and sudden stop, then it would be perfectly sensible to hang witches, regardless of whether or not witchcraft is real. However, it is most likely that the defendants of the Salem trials were not even guilty of conspiracy. They were simply victims of mass hysteria and moral panic growing so out of control that it destroyed innocent lives. Kirk argues that humanity has learned from its past mistakes. His defense of Lucien helped prove that humans really have changed. A greater compassion for our neighbor will reduce conspiracies to do harm, regardless of the method, real or imagined.
Hopeless Trekkie 