aro0823, 2-8

“Go ahead class, be terrorists.” These are not words one typically expects to hear from a teacher. As a matter of fact, I have never heard anyone, in any profession, encourage easily influenced young minds to become terrorists. But, this is postmodernism we’re talking about, so all prior expectations are essentially thrown out the window.
I automatically linked Dr. Rog’s opening comments about terrorism to the totalized metanarrative of “America.” I find it fascinating that as a country, we have our own very distinct metanarrative. Unfortunately, after 9/11, terrorism is very much a part of it. Though, delving deeper, I think terrorism is so engrained in our American metanarrative because of all of the media criticism and commentary devoted to 9/11 and the totalized “War on Terror.” If so much [non-critical] analysis were not given to the words and actions of both our government and hostile governments abroad, terrorism would not be possible. Media conglomerates claim to give you “the real story,” but all they do is give sound bites that subconsciously encourage the viewer to listen to authority figures. The goal of terrorists is to spread fear, and because our news networks constantly pump fear into the hegemonic ideology, terrorism is deemed effective.
The emergence of postmodern thought makes it harder than ever for the ruling elite to continue their hegemony. These elite strive to maintain the status quo, and resort to whatever means necessary to keep the public from being overly critical of policy decisions. Indeed, classicism is “ruled out in a world in which reality is so destabilized,” but modernism is not, especially in the context of conservative administrations. Modernists love absolutes; modernists love tautological phrases. We noted in CMC 200 that part of the reason why the Bush administration was able to so successfully convince the public that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction was because of the constant echoing of buzzwords like “war on terror” and constant encouragement of patriotism and the strength of America. Without postmodern critics to dissect these sensationalist phrases, the metanarrative of America is maintained, so the real terrorists can play on the instilled fear of the general public.