Current Events II

The way the military industrial complex in the U.S has long evolved past depicting ‘Uncle Sam’ on a poster pointing at the audience and saying ‘I want you to…’. Their methods, like the propagandists behind ‘The Chinese Story’ have evolved to become more subtle, and more focused on the benefits on enlisting rather than the potential catastrophe that would ensue a foreign nation invading the U.S. They’ve also been attempting to inspire people to enlist by funding Hollywood movies that glorify American soldiers as strong, fearless warriors. One such example of an American propaganda film is ‘Black Hawk down’, the production of which was directly supervised by the U.S department of defense.

These propagandists rely on cultivation theory with the end goal of convincing young men and women to enlist. By having young people watch movies and T.V shows that depict soldiers as disciplined, badass heroes on a regular and consistent basis, many of them will eventually be tempted to join the army, navy, air force…etc. Another example of propaganda coming from the military industrial complex is a poster proudly displaying the slogan ‘Be All You Can Be’. This corroborates the argument that modern propagandists in the U.S have started using an approach that aims to show young impressionable people the positives of joining the military rather than the negatives of them not joining the military.

The reasons behind these changes can also be tied to Americans being more individualistic. “The society is loosely-knit in which the expectation is that people look after themselves and their immediate families only and should not rely (too much) on authorities for support” (Hofstede Insights, n.d.). The evolution of American military propaganda, having it focus more on personal development, was a necessary step in making the ideas being fed into the system more palatable for the populace.

Sources used: Hofstede Insights. (n.d.). Hofstede Insights USA. Hofstede-Insights.Com. https://hi.hofstede-insights.com/usa