The invention of the atomic bomb is an important one in the annals of U.S. history. World War II and the Cold War that followed seamlessly in its wake were foundational to the shaping of present-day histories of scientific progress, social conflict, and war. The film “Atomic Cafe” explores this history and illustrates how the wars of what some scholars refer to as the “American Century” (20th century) provided a stimulus effect to U.S. capitlalism. Not only did it help fund high-tech R&D, it helped many men upon return from the wars secure loans for subsidized housing and provided benefits (GI Bill) for education. These benefits, however, were not provided to all service men, as discrimination prevented them from being extended to non-white service members.
Aside from these material benefits, the threat of nuclear war loomed heavy in the American psyche during this time period. Both Joe Masco in The Nuclear Borderlands and Jackie Orr in Panic Diaries address what might be termed the “affective dynamics” of nuclear war. “Nuclear panic” and the “national contemplation of ruins,” the both argue, are indicative of how modern warfare effectively blurs the boundary between public and private, inner and outer, and mind and body. This occurs to such a degreee that our private and what we typically think of as the “inner” terrain of our mind is rendered an accessible and legitimate target of mass violence and war.
Discussion Questions
How do the arguments presented by the two authors perhaps make you think differently about war and socio-political violence? For example, have you ever given much thought to how war targets not only bodies, but also the human psyche and its emotional capacities?
How might the manipulation of public feelings about war (this includes feeling as well as un-feeling) serve the strategic interests of powerful groups, who materially benefit from war? In what ways can yous see where you yourself have perhaps been subject to efforts to manipulate your emotions to manufacture support for war and militarism?
What analogies can you make between nuclear panic and the present day “War on Terror?”
What analogies can you make between 50’s era people customizing their personal bomb shelters and present day “doomsday preppers?”
I think the thing that I found the most scary about this whole topic was that people were ready to restructure their whole lives at that time to accommodate something as severe as a nuclear bomb. The Atomic Cafe showed us how people both in and out of the military saw it as a thing of beauty that should be justifiably used to destroy a group of people for no real reason at all! Americans were manipulated into believing that this bomb was a symbol of American pride. By having everyone do all of these drills and pushing out the consistent propaganda, they essentially created a culture of fear. It’s also funny how they were able to instill fear AND create false hope. They allowed Americans to believe that these stupid drills, devices, and contraptions would save them from a nuclear blast while also shipping it as a whole new level of war. The amount of marketing that was done for this bomb was simply incredible.
The concept of war targeting not only human bodies, but also the human psyche and its emotional capacities is not new to me. I knew that concept under a different name, total war, and total war has been a staple of history for some time now. It is the complete mobilization for the war effort and the erasure of distinction between military and civilian targets until only targets are left. What was the difference between the firebombing of Dresden and the atomic bombing of Hiroshima? I will submit that the only difference was efficiency. At Hiroshima we achieved with a single bomb what it took many squadrons of bombers dropping thousands of incendiary bombs to achieve at Dresden. The scale of destruction and civilian casualties was the same and when you are killed, it does not make much difference whether it was a nuke or an incendiary bomb, you are just as dead either way. Think of our ancestors fighting wars with bows and arrows and our current capability to fight a global nuclear war. The difference between the bow and arrow and intercontinental nuclear missiles is efficiency. Using bows and arrows, you have to kill your enemies one at a time. Using nuclear weapons, you can kill them a million at a time. Big leap in technology, little change in intentions.
The one advantage, other than technical efficiency, of nuclear weapons over incendiary bombs is psychological. There was no way the Soviet Union would have managed to have thousands of bombers fly across the world past all our defenses to hit American cities with Dresden-like firebombing raids. No need to panic, hardly any need for the average citizen to be concerned at all. On the other hand, a handful of bombers may manage to sneak through and a single nuke would do the job of a thousand old-fashioned bombers. Hit the panic button! We will listen to the government, no matter how ridiculous whatever the government says. Can it get any more ridiculous than the “duck and cover” public service short films prepared by the US civil defense? If you are not familiar with those, this clip will take you to the 1951 classic “Duck and Cover” civil defense sponsored “public service” training/preparation films https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFT8hLjHtuE. Notice they tell you, with a straight face, that you can use a newspaper to cover and protect your head during an atomic blast. “Duck and Cover” normalized the fear of atomic attacks and put the onus of safety on the individual citizens (Masco, 2008). As usual, it takes a comedian to give the proper perspective and keep it real. This clip will take you to Lewis Black’s take on the “duck and cover” program and what it really meant: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyo3opAW4z0. Just remember, you can survive if you hide under kindling.
Why feed the obvious lie of survival to the American public? It prevented panic and geared the public to support the government on whatever it would take to prevent the nuclear holocaust. We needed air defense to stop the attacks. We needed thousands of nuclear weapons to discourage the attack and thousands more for retaliatory attacks if the Soviets were too dumb to be deterred. We had to become a military nuclear super power in order to prevent a nuclear holocaust and taxpayers had to pay for it. Pay your taxes or be nuked. Mafia, watch and weep. Eisenhower famously warned the nation against the military-industrial complex, but that complex is in charge of running the nation. We invaded Iraq to avid the nuclear mushrooms on our cities. Never mind they had no nuclear weapons. Once our invasion proved they never had “weapons of mass destruction” in the first place, it became “fight them over there so we don’t have to fight them here.” What the hell, we already invaded them. If we have to fight them, better to fight them in their cities rather than ours.
The present day War on Terror is just the natural progression of the Cold War duck and cover strategy. Get us to think we can survive by hiding under kindling. If we could surgically strike the terrorists with no collateral damage, that would be one thing. Reality is that every collateral damage victim will create lots of new terrorists hell-bent on revenge. But we are only proactively protecting ourselves, right? They may be able to acquire one nuclear weapon and sneak it to an American city. Only endless warfare will prevent that. And we need the F-35 bomber which will be no use against a terrorist cell with one nuke, and that is a good thing because the F-35 has turned into a $1.5 TRILLION fiasco that will never work anyways. Of course, we are not supposed to criticize the waste of $1.5 trillion in taxpayers’ money because it would encourage the terrorists to try harder to sneak a nuke on us. That money keeps the military-industrial complex profitable and we need it to protect us from the terrorists, right?
The Cold War normalized the fear of a nuclear holocaust just as the War on Terror has normalized the fear of terrorism. We have to take responsibility for our day-to-day protection. We no longer have “duck and cover” films. We now have Facebook memes serving the same purpose. My favorite so far was posted by a veteran itching for ISIS to come to the US so that veterans can kick ISIS’ ass. I do not have a copy of the meme, but it is a picture from the new “Mad Max” movie with the crazy cars in formation in the desert and a caption reading something along the lines of “veterans be like this, waiting for ISIS to arrive.” My reaction, SPOILER ALERT: those are the bad guys in the movie and they got whooped by a small group of women. I would hope our veterans would do better than that. Makes you miss the “duck and cover” films.
Doomsday preppers are just the modern equivalent of people customizing their personal shelters in the 1950s. They both believe they will survive when everyone else is wiped out. They both believe survival is their personal responsibility. I guess the difference is that people in the 1950s did it as part of a government sponsored program, whereas the doomsday preppers are as likely to be preparing to survive battle against the government as they are to be preparing to survive terror attacks. Would shelters have worked out in the 1950s? We never had to put it to the test. Personally, I highly doubt the citizen shelters would have made a difference. They just kept the illusion that survival was a possibility in a nuclear attack. As for the modern day preppers, what are the odds they will be the direct targets of a terrorist attack? It is within the limits of the possible, I guess. Would they survive? It would depend on how badly the terrorists want them.
Watching Atomic Café brings to light the realization of how devastating nuclear war would be. The film serves as a reminder how government will go to great lengths to mislead the public into believing they are safe from radiation through such drills as “Duck and Cover”. The thought that one can be saved by such a method is mind boggling. The Cold War brought along a new level of paranoia and propaganda with the use of the media to constantly bombard the airwaves with the threat of the “Russians Are Coming”. It was this thinking that the government hoped people would remain calm and not panic when the time came for a nuclear war. Today is no different. We have a “war on terror” but see what the powers that be want us to know. The threat is real. We are spending billions of dollars to keep America safe. The U.S. is one of 9 countries with nuclear weapons. Are we any safer than we were in the 1950’s? We are still on the threshold of a nuclear war and it just takes one push of a button to start the missiles flying. So when you play with fire, be prepared to get burned.
Before reading the two articles and watching “Atomic Cafe,” I only vaguely knew about the way the government keeps the public calm in the face of danger. I always knew that the media was always involved, but I never knew just how much it could do to people, how much research and experimentation went into controlling public fear, and how much of our everyday lives are actually a result of this. I also never saw the hidden motives behind these methods (such as keeping public opinions in favor of the military’s interests).
I thought that “Why We Fight?” also explains how much money the military-industrial complex makes, and these articles show that in order to keep the wars going, and by extension keeping the profits coming in, the government and the media must keep the country willing to keep fighting. To do that, they use the same strategy as they did during the Cold War: “produce fear, but not terror, anxiety but not panic” (Mascoe 368); instead of selling the “minute-to-minute possibility of nuclear warfare” as Mascoe described it, it has become a constant threat of terrorism (sometimes both): the media is always spin new stories of new threats, exaggerating minor ones, doing anything that will get the public’s approval to keep spending money on war. This also includes becoming selective on what is shown to the media and censoring important details that would otherwise sway public opinion away from supporting the wars. Even when the wars are appearing to wind down, things like movies, television shows, and video games keep war on the minds of the people by showing both the “USA #1!” rhetoric as well as the “how to survive it” aspects of all-out nuclear war and/or terrorism.
Along with keeping the wars going, the government has also made it easy to convince people that they must spy on its own people, topple governments, and torture prisoners of war. The fear of the people have justified a lot of atrocities that would have been considered barbaric to others. In the case of Iraq, it is both the fear of terrorism and nuclear war that doubly cemented the justifications to go to war; new and old fears both haunt the public and drives them to war with little questions asked.
Orr also explains that the “the militarization of psychological space,” the “ambient militarism,” made it very easy for the government to manipulate the feelings of the public so that they support their ultimate agendas. The focus has shifted from controlling the morale of the troops to controlling the morale of the civilians at home, who are the ones that will vote for and support the wars. This is apparent today in news channels, news reporters, and even politicians dedicated to reminding people that there is a constant threat of terrorism at any moment, as well as movies, shows, and video games. At the same time, the people are also exposed to many forms of media and messages that show them what to do in case of an attack, often from these same sources that keep the fear inside of them: video games tell us to fight back, zombie apocalypse and other dystopian/post-apocalypse future films and movies tell us to help ourselves but stay together, and so on. Other subtle forms of controlling the people include the careful use of language: politicians always say that WE have to defend OUR country.
It seemed that the work the government is doing today worked to some extent: people are not panicking but always have that fear in the back of their heads, if at all. Only the “doomsday preppers” seem to dwell in that reality that attacks are imminent and all-out wars are coming.
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The constant exposure of “USA #1!” Literature and fiction, alongside the constant reminders that terrorists can attack at any time and place, plus the over-sensationalization of actual attacks (mostly only ones that happen on our soil or on our allies) keep the people afraid enough to keep supporting the war and justify the government pouring money into it. Many of our country’s acts of war and/or extending control and surveillance over our lives are done in the name of 9/11, or in the name of avoiding another Paris attack or another San Bernardino attack.
Adding on to video games, television shows, and movies, they are all sources not only to spread messages and feelings of war, but also to put us in virtual worlds where these horrible events happen, and either direct us on what we should be doing and allows us to test out what can work or not work in such a situation (do you stay or keep moving, do you try to uphold society or become a lone wolf or engage in anarchy, and so on). Plus in some cases, especially through online games and social media responses to an episode or scene, it is possible that the players’/viewers’ data is collected and used for some sort of study similar to theones conducted in the Cold War (some games even have built-in polls showing what % of people chose to do X versus Y). In other words, it is like having the complex nuclear drills of the Cold War, except now it is built into the virtual world for us and we can be exposed to it and tested from the comfort of our homes.
People mistake the manipulation of public feelings on war as a way to recruit more bodies for the grinder. I think the true purpose is to get the public to say yes to war or at the very least be indifferent to it; and I think that’s far more sinister. The glorification of wars that have no direct effect on the American people have numb them to them. Between tv, movies, video games, novels, comics, etec; the American people have been bombarded with inaccurate portrayals of war which leaves them with a secret hunger for conflict. It’s knowingly placed there to help the military industrial complex proceed without opposition.
There you go. I knew you had it in you.
To add on to my previous comment:
The constant exposure of “USA #1!” Literature and fiction, alongside the constant reminders that terrorists can attack at any time and place, plus the over-sensationalization of actual attacks (mostly only ones that happen on our soil or on our allies) keep the people afraid enough to keep supporting the war and justify the government pouring money into it. Many of our country’s acts of war and/or extending control and surveillance over our lives are done in the name of 9/11, or in the name of avoiding another Paris attack or another San Bernardino attack.
Adding on to video games, television shows, and movies, they are all sources not only to spread messages and feelings of war, but also to put us in virtual worlds where these horrible events happen, and either direct us on what we should be doing and allows us to test out what can work or not work in such a situation (do you stay or keep moving, do you try to uphold society or become a lone wolf or engage in anarchy, and so on). Plus in some cases, especially through online games and social media responses to an episode or scene, it is possible that the players’/viewers’ data is collected and used for some sort of study similar to theones conducted in the Cold War (some games even have built-in polls showing what % of people chose to do X versus Y). In other words, it is like having the complex nuclear drills of the Cold War, except now it is built into the virtual world for us and we can be exposed to it and tested from the comfort of our homes.
I think when it comes to National Security and Terror threats, we as a population are constantly manipulated and motivated to be ever fearful and scared of what could happen. Looking at the world from a post 9-11 standpoint, much has changed in the liberties and freedoms that we previously had to what is standard today. We get nearly naked at the airport now and have to throw liquids out because one and i repeat one person had a bomb in his shoes. We are having our calls, texts, and emails screened by the NSA for trigger words and links to terrorism. We are perpetually told ISIS, Al Queda, Boko Haram, or some other terrorist organization is out to get us and the only way we can be safe is to buy more guns, let the government check and view everything we do, and to engage in constant war. This was of life is truly troubling and only benefits the government contractors and the war machine that is constantly producing arms and new ways to scare us for unprecedented profits. We have an entire political party that basically wants to Nuke the middle east based upon false claims and fear mongering, and nearly 35%-45% of the population agree with them. It is very scary times to live in currently and i think we need to have a campaign about peace, love, happiness, and acceptance. We need to show how our Muslim brothers and sisters are fearful and are fighting these groups just as much as we are, and we need to educate our population not only in the differences between our cultured but between the similarities so we can stop all of this hate before it is too late.
No one is out of grasp of the government; we are all victims of information control. Our mind is manipulated through the control of information that is disseminated as honest and unbiased opinion. Through the media, we are being spoon feed the belief of the day, the stance of the week, the despised person of the month and the enemy country of the year. We are never getting the authentic story but are fed propaganda to promote a particular political or economic cause power holders want us to rally behind.
Some people usually associate propaganda with totalitarian countries and dictators. They fail to realize that in the case of the United States, a democratic society with a capitalist economy, propaganda manipulation has somewhat become a highly insidious art form. It is invisible by its visibility and invades our thoughts and actions – it is a reform of individual minds on a one by one case. Many people don’t like to think or deal with concepts that are foreign or prove to be challenging. Comfort and common ideas are easier to digest, and cognizant of that fact, the government encourages and facilitates such behavior while strengthening the chains they are building on their minds. In the aftermath of 9/11, commanding voices, heard through the five US mass media new sources whose control spans over magazines, newspapers, TV and radio stations and that are connected to the political and economic establishment of the power elites, whispered to our ears we needed to go to Iraq to bring democracy and free its people. The entire population has been brainwashed to rally behind those beliefs and their free will has been manipulated to manufacture support for the war and influenced by the few in power.
In addition to brainwashing and manipulation, the government also fosters a culture of poisonous paranoia at home with its anti-terrorist efforts. The slogan “if you see something, say something”, provides comfort for some but also constantly remind citizens that the threat is real and ever present. We end up being in a government manufactured and artificially sustained state of emergency threating the most insignificant object or innocent person as a potential threat because of an irrational fear of an imminent attack. We went from building shelters to protect our families from the enemy to playing an active and critical role in keeping the whole nation safe by reporting to authorities every oddity, from family duty to civic duty.
I cannot agree more. We are constantly being manipulated from many directions in today’s society that leaves us craving war and/or paranoia that in any given moment it can happen in our backyard. We tested nuclear weapons on innocent people without their knowledge and were fed information to make us feel “safe” during a nuclear bombing just so we can continue to support government testing; knowing every well these procedures would not save anyone. This all circles back to the movie “Why We Fight”. The real underlying reasons the media and government promote warfare will never be disclosed to the general public on the surface.
Jackie Orr raises a point that national defense incorporates two aspects which are military- their ability and responsibility and citizen’s self-help and self protection. However, by using traditional media, such as the radio to deliver information to a large audience, people’s psyche are disrupted by the news and have no control of the information they are receiving. The idea of targeting the public is a strategy to put them in a vulnerable situation and to bring out the idea that the military or U.S. is doing their best to save their country. This is where Orr states, “national security IS national fear.”(pg. 467). Workshops that were taught by FCDA on civil defense exercises, education and the event Operational Alert, reminded me of the education classes that the Japanese received in the internment camps. The idea of creating fear, exercising power and education to manipulate people and their psyche, into thinking that the U.S. is protecting the country’s border. Realistically, we know that the government cannot protect us all.
The emotional and psychological aspect of information overlaps between war and socio-political violence. The government has control of the kind of information to release to the public, yet installing a sense of fear and insecurity. There may be a sense of instability within the government and war because of this idea that America is one of the major powers, but may not necessarily have the nuclear weapons to do so. Programs such as FCDA or emergency response exercises are implemented to the public as a precaution.
I remember in high school, we had this program called JROTC, which is a leadership training for high school students(…from what I understood).I thought it was a good idea to join, so I had a friend recruit me. When I first stepped foot into the classroom and met with the sergeant, I felt bewildered and the vibe of the situation tells me that I did not want to be recruited. So, I ended up dropping out. However, I did admire the uniform, I thought everyone was in unity, but the discipline and yelling was a bit overwhelming for me. Participants from JROTC, will often tell boxes of candy to raise money and I would feel obligated to buy a bar whenever I saw someone carrying a box. I did not feel a sense of manipulation, but thought that it would be a friendly gesture and to support my peers.
The analogy of stop and frisk, Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and various hate crimes resemble the present day “War on Terror”. There has been issue of stop and frisk because people of color felt that they were victims when being searched by police due to their race or what police officers perceive as “suspicious”. The Chinese Exclusion Act was the first racial quota created by U.S. to limit Chinese immigrants because they were viewed as a threat and “taking” away American jobs. I mentioned hate crimes because of the instability, insecurity, fear, ignorant and underprivileged individuals may experience or may commit such act.
From the history of America the invention of the atomic bomb was certainly a scientific advancement that caused a change to spread throughout the nation as well as the powerful use of propaganda that was very much a part of its creation in order to project an image to the country which came down to be a romanticized perspective.
At the time of its arrival into the public, many film productions and advertisements were done to develop a sense of a false happiness along with the notion of safety which in the end was an enormous illusion which caused a great deal of manipulation to occur within the minds of many individuals. This process lead to the consuming of certain items that would within the imagination of a person at the time cause a level of protection from an atomic blast that was to take place but in the end never did. With musical notes and composing that had an upbeat aura along with silly tactics, many people found the atomic bomb to be very much avoided if done in the proper sense of using their consumed protection. The reality of this powerful weapon was beyond the comprehension of many people and was quite understandable for the amount of ignorance to be present since this was something very new and the access of scientific knowledge wasn’t at a large scale when compared to this very moment. This can even be said with the after effects such as radiation which people were not aware of at all.
Through the lying and sacrifices that were used on many people, a powerful weapon was emerged to squeeze its way into being accepted into the public’s eye which in the end caused the idea of safety and the possibility of destruction to bounce back and forth in the documentary known as “Atomic Café”.
Atomic Café was quite a learning experience. It is very different to watch a movie as an adult than reading events in books as a teenager not quite connecting myself as an American with the people I read about harming other for the greater good. When you watch children, women, men, who through no fault of their own become victims of the entity that is supposed to protect civilians, it truly hurts. “Survival Is Your Business: Engineering Ruins and Affect In Nuclear America,” by Joe Masco was eye opening when explaining the truth behind the propaganda of nuclear age and how psychologically the government toyed with its civilians in order to detonate weapons of mass destruction causing many to become ill. Furthermore, “in the early Cold War United States, it became a civic obligation to collectively imagine, and at times theatrically enact through “civil defense,” the physical destruction of the nation-state,” (Mascoe, pg. 362) was truly disturbing to me.
I was born in Queens, New York. I grew up in South America. I learned the structure of a cell in English. I learned the words of our Colombian freedom fighter, Simon Bolivar, in Spanish. When I became a teenager, I returned to New York to continue my education. It was so hard. I did not learn US History early on. I read book with little interest during high school years. A fascination with WWII during my high school years was born because of the ability of one man committing inhumane acts with the support of his country truly was unreal to me. Now, learning about the history of the United States of America is more troubling than anything I have ever read. It made me sick to see the government using its own people to test all kinds of weapons with no remorse or scruples – an immoral country. Playing mind games to condition an entire nation to fear in order to accept irrational plans and actions taken by our government is deeply painful to learn. I thought I was a part of a great nation, but there is no greatness in concealed plans of actions regardless of the population the government decides to implement. Power and Strength are two different words with significant different meanings. The country is ran by power trips. To be strong, one must learn to govern differently. It is more important to have people respect government than fear it for fear leads to the ultimate decay of the structure it pretends so hard to represent. “The intent of these public spectacles— nuclear detonations, city evacuations, and duck and cover drills—was not defense in the classic sense of avoiding violence or destruction but rather a psychological reprogramming of the U.S. public for life in a nuclear age. The central project of the early nuclear statewasto linkU.S. institutions—military, industrial, legislative, and academic—for the production of the bomb, while calibrating public perceptions of the nuclear danger to enable that project,” (Mascoe, pg. 363) the mockery of drills and the exploitation of consumers making them purchase ideas of protection knowing well a nuclear attack cannot be out run, or hidden from is insulting. I understand trying to limit hysteria but capitalizing on families through the business of building bomb shelters, clothing, and outfits to save us is rather abusive. Here is where the nasty face of capitalism went beyond the level of low anyone can possibly reach. To think of all the money stripped from the society of fear in order to save them. To also think of how the idea of alienation was subliminally sold to the population by discouragement to help others knowing well they would all die should a nuclear attack happen. It is complete madness, not to mention the gender role subtle reminder of duties. It seems women were trying to be redirected to time before wars when they took care of the house hold. The entire idea is so much bigger than just the nuclear bomb. Capitalism took the opportunity to sell social class goodies to make all aware of where everyone belongs in the chain.
“The Militarization of Inner Space.” By Jackie Orr describes the techniques used on soldiers to cope with the killing of human beings. The more space between subject and target makes it a lot easier to follow orders because targets begin to lose value from afar. Targets from a plane resemble dots and the weapons used usually kill large amounts of civilians a lot faster. I hope we can change the way we perceive the world. We can only find good when we search for it.
The film Atomic Café highlights the power and control the government and media has on the society. It is a complete shame the for years the government intentionally plans how they can manipulate the society to have support on wars and change of policies. With support of people through fear, institutions such as the military may benefit economically from wars. Institutions economically benefit from the war which is why there is such a need to maintain and continually invest in wars when there is no need to. This amount of both propaganda and manipulation continue to happen today, they shape the way we think and view changes within decisions and policies, especially over war and terror. Unfortunately media in a sense thinks for us, the program the way we live our lives everyday.
I agree in that the film Atomic Cafe does a good job of showing how much of an impact the media had on society.To think that school aged children and adults were taught to “Duck and Cover” and did so in many instances ( duck and cover while riding a bike, duck and cover while on a picnic, duck and cover in class etc.) shows how we feed into collective hysteria.
This movie may seem dated but it certainly reminds us or at least me of what is still going on today. A lot of what comes out from the government / mainstream media is a lie and unfortunately many will act on it as a result reaffirming their control and power.
What is happening today, particularly in terms of our media, is far more sophisticated, pervasive, and dangerous.
An outstanding share! I have just forwarded this onto a co-worker who had been doing a little homework on this. And he in fact bought me lunch due to the fact that I stumbled upon it for him… lol. So let me reword this…. Thank YOU for the meal!! But yeah, thanx for spending the time to talk about this issue here on your site.
Hi there! This post could not be written much better!
Reading through this post reminds me of my previous roommate!
He continually kept talking about this. I’ll send this article to him.
Fairly certain he will have a great read. Many thanks for sharing!
The film Atomic Cafe and the two readings by Orr and Masco shed light on the subtle ways wars are presented and eventually sold to the public sphere. The blueprint for a war may be made way before combat even begins. The propaganda, the media outlets all selling us the war through fear, repetition of events that have happened, what “may happen and what “will” happen if nations don’t engage in war. Orr explains how most of us are almost forced to believe the justifications for war through fear. I would agree that fear is the main cause of violence. Making people feel unsafe and uneasy at a time of imminent war can cause votes for a reason to go to war to sky rocket. “Every American is a soldier” stated George W. Bush (Orr. 2) a month after the 9/11 attacks. The “war on terrorism” was what drove America to war so quickly. All you heard, read about everywhere was how we have to go into combat to fight terrorists. I believe repetition of making us fear, as I repeat, is what eventually allows a nation to go to war. The human psyche is targeted because I believe that is the weakest part of a human being. The mind allows for misconceptions, emotions and assumptions when given the right food to feed it. With support of millions of people through fear and manipulation, powerful groups and institutions such as the military may benefit economically and socially from war. From the beginning of World War II, the films show how the American government sold the idea of warfare becoming more sophisticated and dangerous. A change that needed to happen so that the American people can have piece of mind about their people inflicting pain and violence first. The human body became an experiment. Nuclear warfare was seen as a way to completely destroy the enemy, whoever it may be, mentally and physically. The bombs became sophisticated enough to destroy cities and affect the human body completely. War changed forever. War not only targets the mind, but the body more.
The two readings as well as the movie Atomic Café and Why We Fight really opened my eyes to war and the reasons as well as the impact of war on society. I have always seen war as something that happens for various reasons, without ever knowing the real reasons. These films and readings have made me realize that war is no longer about fighting for your country, but about fighting for some kind of political or economic gain. The government manipulates society into thinking we are sacrificing our family and friends for the sake of freedom when it really is not the reason. These manipulations affect history as well. Something that really stood out to me in the films, especially Why We Fight was that we intentionally dropped bombs in Japan using virgin cities and after Japan tried to surrender to us. I had always been taught we did it as retaliation, what other action were we supposed to take. Americans have been led to believe this since it happened. What it really was for was to test the nuclear bombs we had created. Dropping two bombs was a way to test different types of nuclear bombs without having to do the testing on our own people. It was a loophole in research. The rules and regulations for doing studies on people in the United States would prevent a study of that type from happening. If we drop bombs on cities full of people we don’t care about then it is our way of performing these studies without breaking the law or harming our own people. The manipulation of society allowed for these things to happen. The same way American soldiers were manipulated into being subject to chemical warfare studies. They had been told that they were allowed to say no, but they were soldiers being given orders and once they were in there was no way out. Being in college and being exposed to courses such as this one has opened my eyes to the reality of government and society and the way that society is completely and totally manipulated into believing that the government is there to always protect us, but in reality they are protecting themselves and nobody else.