If I had to sum up what I have learned from this class in one simple phrase it would be, think critically. As we have seen the world around us is not very straight forward. It is full of deceptive and fearful tactics to make us more accepting of what we are told. I consider myself to be above that now. I know that I must take the news with a large helping of skepticism. I have come to the realization that our government is really not very truthful at all. This knowledge has come not just from this class, but all my Communication classes. I am a firm believer that media studies is very important. Without the classroom setting, it is very difficult to change people's mindsets about our society. One of the biggest problems is that people want to accept things at face value, without having to think. It is because of this that the news media can be so successful with its propaganda type stories. I use the analogy that the American people are sheep. They need to be lead, and without leadership they are lost without direction. However, when this leadership is poor, or misguided, or both, this can turn into a disaster. The clearest example would be the events following 9/11. Everyone was afraid and therefore we were quick to believe anything the government told us. Only in hindsight is the error of our ways revealed.
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| don't be sheep |
All of this subject matter tends to be depressing. So as you might have noticed over the course of the semester I try to throw some humor into these blog posts to lighten the mood. Not only have our discussions been depressing, but also frustrating. I wish we did not live in a world like this, where the culture of fear is so ingrained that is will never disappear. I try to talk to my friends and family about such issues, but I see just how caught up they are in the culture of fear that it s hard to get through. One of my biggest gripes with this country is our military industrial complex. After brining this up my friends acuse me of hating America. Then I thought, do I hate America? The short answer is no. I live here for one, so that would be hypocritical, however America definitely makes me shake my head pretty often. My last piece of advice is don't be sheep, be a Shepard. Try to lead people instead of being lead yourself. If that doesn't work, I have looked into other countries and Sweden looks pretty sweet. High life expectancy, good health care system, lots of labor unions, the list goes on. So I might be buying Rosetta Stone for Swedish and look into citizenship options. Besides half the population is made up of beautiful blonde girls! I am only half kidding about all this by the way.
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| If this whole America thing doesn't work out... |
