Bella Post Class 4/1

I loved the OutFoxed video we watched in class today. In fact, I liked it so much, I just spent an hour on Youtube watching several different clips from Outfoxed and Fox News. Earlier today, my Dad had emailed me an excerpt from the book, Where Have All the Leaders Gone? and I felt that it was a perfect correlation with what we discussed in class, today. In class, Dr. Rog said, “Media has a liberal bias…The world is dominated by ideology”. The world is dominated by ideologies–ideologies that keep us silent, feeling helpless and passive. Where have all the leaders gone? Lee Iacocca wrote,

"Am I the only guy in this country who's fed up with what's happening? Where the hell is our outrage? We should be screaming bloody murder. We've got a gang of clueless bozos steering our ship of state right over a cliff, we've got corporate gangsters stealing us blind, and we can't even clean up after a hurricane much less build a hybrid car. But instead of getting mad, everyone sits around and nods their heads when the politicians say, "Stay the course" Stay the course? You've got to be kidding. This is America, not the damned Titanic!”

I felt outraged at the idea of being a passive receiver of propaganda and media messages. I feel as if I barely recognize our country anymore. I haven’t been around for very long, and this culture is all I’ve ever known. What if the generations that come after me don’t understand the idea of propaganda anymore; what if it becomes “real”? What if Fox News becomes the norm? Ahhh, it makes me anxious just thinking about it. I guess it is our responsibility to stand up and say ENOUGH. We need to tell our politicians that we’re not stupid, that we know what they’re doing, tell the media to stop playing down to us, tell Congress to actually accomplish something. Bourdieu said, “Here in lies the danger of simplistic criticism. It takes the place of the work necessary to understand phenomena….” (Bourdieu 329). Simplicity will not suffice. I’m going to take this big green theory book and start bashing people’s heads in until they get it. Well, maybe not that violently, but I just can’t take it anymore.