I have serious issues with propaganda. It bothers me to see how much it effects how we think and what we do. Everywhere we look, we are faced with the beliefs and values that others want us to have. In many cases it isn?'t even people who are submitting us to propaganda, but rather, the government, and big corporations. And as much as I don?t like being subjected to false images and false information, I am satisfied knowing that I am aware of what is going on. If I know that I?m being confronted with propaganda, then I?m able to make my own judgments about it, or research the issue more using more subjective sources.
A great example of the way our government has misled us, is with communism. Many Americans have no clue as to what communism really is. The U.S. government described communism in such a way that it evoked fear in many people. In the 1950s the American government felt the need to raise support for the production of weapons. In order to do so, so they pushed false ideas about communism and communist countries.
Last year in U.S. History we learned about wartime propaganda extensively. Our teacher gave us advertisements from World War II from different countries and we studied how the governments used different means to manipulate citizens. What strikes me as funny, is that there is a war going on right now, but we did not even touch upon the subject of wartime propaganda today. Turning on any major news station, especially right after 9-11, you would see patriotic banners and American flags covering the screen. Even when the program showed some doubt about the war (which wasn?t often), the criticism was directed towards foreign leaders, or just the President. *****As opposed to having a good reason to be at war with the USSR, the U.S. decided to create a reason.
As demeaning as this may sound, I feel like average Americans are brainwashed without even knowing it. Typical American children believe in their freedoms and rights so blindly, that they don?t realize when their rights are being taken away from them. The people that are most aware of the controls instilled by the government, are the foreigners, or the ?atypical? Americans who have had their rights stripped at one point or another.
A great example of the way our government has misled us, is with communism. Many Americans have no clue as to what communism really is. The word alone raises fear in many. During the Cold War, the American government felt the need to evoke support from the American people, so they pushed false ideas about communism and communist countries, so the U.S. could feel superior. As opposed to having a good reason to be at war with the USSR, the U.S. decided to create a reason.
A very similar situation has happened in the last few years. Our government, once again, took misleading and false information to convince the American public that war in Iraq was necessary.
"And we are here as on a darkling plain,
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
Where ignorant armies clash by night."