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In a post 9/11 world torture has become synonymis with interrogating. For example, the television show 24 has very popular for years, and featured many scenes of torture. In this film, there are two separate occasions of torture being the reason people were driven to do something horrible. Speaking of something horrible it was very troubling to see how our government handled investigating the Soviet Union. The film made it pretty clear that neoconservatives had a very specific agenda. They needed fear to have power. Therefore, they fabricated evidence that the Soviet Union had super weapons. It was actually laughable that later on, we used our own propaganda as evidence. I also did not realize just how early on Rumsfeld and Cheney became involved. Then the film explored how the neoconservative movement came together. They used religion as a jump pad to boost their power. This again is evidence that certain people will just blindly follow what they are told.
There was a lot of set up, if you will, in the first part of this film. It is important to know the whole backstory, in order to understand the complete story. However, what is clear is that the next two parts will be very interesting. My friends always joke around that I hate America because of all my Comm classes. I do not hate America per se, but films such as this just add to my general frustration with decisions this country has, and continues to make. So no, I do not hate the country I live in, but it can make me shake my head pretty often.
I think you really hit the nail on the head with this post. There was a lot of information put right out there and if this is something that you had little previous knowledge about then it can be very difficult to keep all the names and facts straight. That being said, knowing this information already seems to make a lot of things make more sense.
ReplyDeleteI too was fascinated by the use of our own propaganda as a means to influence our actions. It only makes it clearer to me that it is not the facts that are important it is the idea, the facts can just be made up and if they are there long enough fiction becomes fact and the truth gets lost.
In my post I think i summarized the same idea, information was in full effect. There was not possible way that us college students who have just only begun to study this issue could possibly grasp all the information and name that have been presented to us. I tried my, as I'm sure you did, but no matter what it was a lot of information to remember at the drop of a hat. But besides that fact I liked that you also examined the myth of a nation and how ridiculous and out of hand that phrase has become over the decades. In the end we have needed fear to have power and the neo-conservatives have been the best at harnessing this power. I, like yourself, never realized how involved Cheney has been from the very beginning, making it easier for him to be able to control us and construct this culture of fear.
ReplyDeleteGreat post! I also thought that the "Baby, It's Cold Outside Song" was interesting...the narrators didn't mention it, but I wonder if Qutb thought that the lyrics were immoral as well. I also thought that the idea of myth that they presented was significant: it's obviously the premise of the series. I actually said in my post that this series seems as though it is going to tie together most of the themes we've discussed in class, so this idea of myth (bringing us back to Hall's chapters) is central if we're going to understand the way that these Truths are purported, in what discourse and by what regimes of power. Also, like the bottom image!
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