If fear is the yoke that keeps the American people living in ignorance, then patriotism is a set of horse blinders, preventing them from seeing that things can, or should be, any different. The media tells Americans that they live in the greatest nation on Earth. Everything is great in America. Kinney is the Great American Shoe Store. Where do you go for a day of fun with the family? That’s right—Six Flags Great America. America IS to the world what Muhammad Ali was to boxing. It must be true—the TV said so, and TV doesn’t lie, does it? The news, for example, is as true as the truth gets. It’s not like it’s a carefully selected and stylized account of reality, intended to provide a narrow, biased, sensationalized version of the truth to garner ratings and generate valuable advertising dollars.
Of course it is. But as long as it works—as long as people believe without question that they have it great and should fear others trying to destroy their perfect way of life—who the hell cares? Look at the benefits to the entities in control (the government and big business, if I need to spell it out for you). Mr and Mrs Joe Citizen are more than happy to slog it out in the land of expensive, privately managed health care systems while other less evolved and less desirable societies have to live with free universal healthcare. Poor bastards.
In America—the land of opportunity—free men are (theoretically) able to succeed or fail purely on their own wits and talents. Never mind that in America—one of the richest nations on Earth—there’s a huge (and growing) division between rich and poor. Obviously, all those people (the working poor) are just lazy, talentless uneducated cretins who were beat out fair and square by more more worthy capitalists. Survival of the fittest and all that.
Just for a minute, consider that fear and patriotism may be somewhat influential in maintaining the status quo, and consider that the mass media may be key to keeping this system in place.
American dominance in the world is tied to its global military, which is funded by discretionary monies which could otherwise fund programs that would benefit average citizens (read: universal healthcare). To justify the military, the US needs an enemy. The USSR met this need for many years, and it was almost a shame when the Soviet Union fell because there was an urgent need to replace it immediately with something just as frightening. It wasn’t easy. Boo! Communism!
Fortunately, in politics, the line between friend and enemy is very thin indeed. The US has installed plenty of terrorists and dictators in control of foreign countries (Noriega, Hussein, and yes, bin Laden), providing them with military support, weapons, and training, so long as they backed American interests. When each of those dictators decided they were tired of taking orders from the US—suddenly they were deadly enemies of the US that must be destroyed (or at least that’s what the media was told to report). Of course, it was just a matter of a business relationship ending—it was nothing personal. That’s why the United States government provided private jets for members of Bin Laden’s family after September 11th—so they could leave America safely before the news could report how Bin Laden was the new enemy.
It’s actually a good thing, politically, that Osama bin Laden has yet to be captured. It doesn’t even matter whether he’s actually dead or alive. As long as there is the potential that he still exists just out of our reach, we still have our enemy. The loom of his spectre will continue to provide fodder for the simplistic “good vs. evil” melodrama on the daily news. Americans will continue to watch their daily dose of propaganda, fear for their safety, and gladly hand over the keys of the nation to George “I’m a War President” Bush. And who knows? While Dubyah is out there, misusing the US military like a bargaining chip, buying political power from weak or oppressive foreign governments (“Well, unless you’re willing to do what we ask, I’m afraid we’ll have to remove our military installation…”)—he may just “find” Osama and bring him to the American people. But hopefully not before they’ve determined his replacement. Should that vacancy persist, the unthinkable might happen. You might begin to feel safe and comfortable in your own home, and notice that there are no decent social programs to care for you in illness and old age. But don’t worry. I think there’s someone evil working out of Iran.
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