The media, war, and patriotism

I’m a conflicted individual. That’s what the pop-culture class has taught me recently. I've spent a lot of time thinking about the military. The thought that our cultures immersion in war has somehow made us less critical thinkers makes me very…unhappy. I've been developing an opinion that I think might be a little controversial. Someone called out the fact that we voted for George Bush for a second term and that was their example of us as Americans not thinking critically. I don’t think it was our immersion in war that took away our ability to think critically, I think it was our blind patriotism.

I’m not trying to say that we shouldn't be patriotic, especially in times of crisis. I just think our patriotism created an atmosphere where we made decisions that weren't optimal.  I’m also not saying that the news does a good job when it portrays war. I think we can all agree that the way the news portrayed the war, specifically in 2003, was downright deceitful. I just have trouble believing that the news is capable of rendering the American public incapable of making critical decisions. I feel like we are giving the media too much power. I just like to think that we are capable of more. I do think that one of the things capable of taking away our ability to think critically is a situation in which we feel our security is threatened. I think this was the case in 2003, and I don’t think that was a bad thing in that instance.