"Tragedy and the Common Man" by Arthur Miller

Arthur Miller explores in this article the nature of the genre of tragedy and its roots in Greek theater and how it has evolved and devolved since that time. It's an investigation into what makes a work a tragedy, what's so great about them, and why there aren't many being made "anymore" in his time. Miller is really interested in this article about the conditioning of humans in the ways we understand cause and effect which in large part is about free will and individual action against notions of fate or large systems at play that create the world around us. It's very interesting to me to know that this article was originally published a few years before The Crucible which may be said is Miller's most famous play and can very easily be deemed a tragedy. It's well known for many that The Crucible was written during the time of McCarthyism when a large part of the US government targeted and persecuted a variety of artists and community leaders for fear of communism. In this reality, the notions of cause and effect are largely undermined because facts and individual perceptions of truth were valued over others. This kind of power dynamic that has a huge impact on people's lives and free will inherently create tragic stories and Miller absolutely capitalized on that moment in creating The Crucible. So in the era of McCarthyism and every moment since (and lots of moments before in United States history), Miller's theories and thesis around what tragedy can look like for the common man is pretty shaky. The state of the United States exists by and for large systems with the facade of individualism being its core ideal. Tragedy being grounded in human's perfectability, fatal flaws, and grappling with the conditions of life is really difficult to solidify and keep ties to when the individual is pretty undervalued and untrusted. What is the use of labeling work as tragedy and all the history that comes in that when the context for the creation of that kind of work is long gone and really separate from any findable context now?