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From: Brett Chase
T1: chasebrett@hotmail.com
Date: 10/22/99
Time: 9:12:58 AM
Remote Name: 130.68.108.91
And so it goes. We learn things every day of our lives, from the time we have said our first words and taken those first few steps, and now as we sit in front of screens and speak about what we think we know on the Vietnam War and even America. We have all been hoodwinked, had the wool pulled over our eyes. What do any of us know for certain?
All right, so I have been waxing philosophical. But for my money philosophy is one of the only valid disciplines because it professes that nothing can be known. That above all is what has been stressed to me so far in this course. I came into this thinking I understood what went down in the Vietnam "conflict," and that would have been true if all anyone needed to know came from a screening of "Platoon." We live in a capitalist society, an imperialist society. We have all grown up watching the tube, rooting for our Olympians to defeat the evil Reds. Why? Because the "commies" were using steroids, cheating to beat us because they were so inferior. They lie to their people through propaganda and brutalize them to keep them in check.
I saw "Rocky IV" again recently, and I have been reaffirmed in my belief that it is one of the biggest budget pro-imperialist propaganda pieces ever distributed. And I think we have all seen it once before, or at least something similar. America is, I believe, worse than the Soviets ever were. At least the people of the USSR knew where they stood with their government. What do any of us know about ours? Only a few newsbites ever surface telling us all about horrible things our government has done, and even then there is a competent defense for our actions (political or military). We get watered-down coverage or water-tight cover-ups. We are not so much better than our rivals than we have been led to believe, though most Americans would never admit that.
The bottom line is that we are all taught from infancy that we live in the greatest country in the world, and that our leaders are sitting up on high, looking out for our best interests, protecting us from evil. Children all over the world are taught this from birth. Our media are said to be too prying, but that isn't so; they just concentrate on the wrong things. I don't care if Monica gave Bill a hummer in the Oval office. I want to know if Marilyn, Lady Bird or Patty were there when JFK, LBJ or RMN started sending young American men on missions of death and destruction in the name of higher profit margins. Children's cartoons tell them that we must protect our wealthy executives from harm, and adults learn through years of disappointment and suppressed rage that our government doesn't give a damn about us. Perhaps we were fighting our best option for the past half-century. By the time we have realized this, it seems too late. Turn your tv back on, and never mind the man behind the curtain, as Tom Brokaw tells us more about the great and powerful OZ.
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