Aysha55′s Blog

February 6th, 2009 Blog

February 6, 2009 at 5:13 pm (Blogs) (Americans, justice)

In the reading “Chomsky, the Empire and Media Literacy,” by Joe Kincheloe, I  completely agree with the author in saying that the United States have used a form of media to create an ideological climate both within the country and abroad. America tries to show the world how compassionate they are and how they support justice and democracy. They want the world to know about their strong culture of military, politics and economics. The United States is a hegemonic state whose power has a heavy influence on the world and can make a country bend to his or her knees. Even when many countries did not support the Americans going to war, the United States had the power of veto to reject these decisions.  When the United States confronted the third world countries, they didn’t gain the support of the people.  Instead, they instilled fear by pounding them and teaching them the lesson,  “We are the masters, and you shine our shoes.”

 

       I also agree that the media did take the advantage of George W. Bush for his failure to win in Iraq, and  that the Americans do not care how many civilians and military troops are killed for geopolitical gain, as long as they are winning the war. I also believe that media controls so much that we never get to listen to the other side of the story – strong corporate-owned media surpresses the voice of the adversary. I also ask myself why the United States gets to decide what happens to other people in the world, and why their fates are in their hands. The media had a big hand in making George W. Bush one of the most powerful leaders post-9/11, and we see that people really believed in him because he got re-elected. When 9/11 occurred, all the TV channels were constantly telling the world to beware of Muslims, and that they are truly all bad people and terrorists.

 

 

            I think all the money that was put into war could have gone to a better cause and help people around the world. It could have helped fight poverty and hunger, provide better education and health plans, and fight many other injustices happening in the world that require the resources and capital of strong nations. I think the North American media tries to show that they put a lot of effort and generosity into help underdeveloped countries, and try to bring them into prosperity and future progress. I ask myself how that can be possible if they constantly loan money knowing that these countries will not be able to generate the same amount to pay them back. These third-world countries have abundant resources and have the capacity to feed their starving people, but the governments are run by the rich who overprice necessary goods, while they are exploiting their resources.

            According to the media, the Americans were winning by implementing democracy in a country in need.  After 2007, over 3,000 Americans dead showed their plans didn’t really work. America is in a time where they need to regain the confidence of their people, and I think they might gain this confidence with the new president Barack Obama. For the Arab world, the new order simply looks grim and knows the American strategy behind this “democracy” is to get the black gold, “oil.”  There is so much chaos in the world that there is need for a new order. “The Palestinians will be crushed, will die or turn into dust and the waste of society, and join the most impoverished classes in the Arab countries.” Examples like this show that we need to prioritize what is important. Things like ethnic cleansing are what large powerful nations should stand against, and evoke support of peace, not promotion of war.