massornament

I hope you note the sarcasm in the title… it’s not really directed at any single person in particular but is motivated more by frustration. I just came across Tom Engelhardt’s essay at AlterNet where he makes the case that the U.S. is a military- or warfare-state:

“While You are Minding Your Own Business, The U.S. is Constantly Making War Around the Globe” by Tom Engelhardt, Tomdispatch.com / Alternet
As much as it might seem that most of us are going along, living peaceful lives, there’s another kind of America that operates on the same soil — a warfare state.

The article is excellent but my frustration comes from the necessity of him having to write such an article in the first place.  As a person who has spent years studying propaganda, media and politics, this is certainly not new to me and even though I understand that for the average U.S. citizen, Canadian, etc. it all might come as a surprise, it really shouldn’t be so surprising. But, I guess that is the reality of living under (or beside) a military suoperpower. I teach a course on media, war, and propaganda which focuses primarily on the twentieth century and the U.S.  Many students are genuinely surprised at the extent of the U.S. military empire, and these are well-educated and informed young adults. Of course, and Engelhardt points this out in his essay, there is little reflection of the military state in U.S. (or even Canadian) media. Of course, that is to be expected within a military empire: there is usually a lot of denial of empire or it is downplayed by carefully referring to it only by using euphemism.

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