Marketing war ““ should you buy it?

Shirin Vossoughi Vossoughi encourages you to
speak your mind at [email protected].
Click Here for more articles by Shirin Vossoughi

Attention all consumers! There’s a snazzy new product out
and you better run quick because it’s selling like hot cakes!
It comes in beautiful, glossy packaging and can even be delivered
straight to your doorstep at no extra charge! Just what is this
mysterious merchandise?

It’s called war.

Some declare that the nationalistic propaganda flooding the U.S.
helps our nation grieve. However, a closer look at to whom this war
is marketed reveals that frantic nationalism always does more harm
than good. The issue is not whether one is pro- or anti-America. It
is about everyone around the world, ourselves included, learning to
chew the information fed to us by those in power, before we decide
whether to swallow it.

Illustration by notlisted

While many countries propagate nationalistic pride and utilize
propaganda, the U.S. is not just any nation. It is the lone
superpower, one that has more military bases and intelligence
networks than any country in the world, yet one that also has a
public shamefully uneducated about the world. But this is no
accident. In order to beef up the military exponentially and
broaden the extent of U.S. power in the oil-rich Middle East, the
government needs our complacency.

So who are the target consumers of U.S. propaganda?

First off, our youth. As students, we must understand the
essential need to question information and critically analyze what
we are told. Yet our national education system is beginning to
mimic a factory that churns out star-spangled brains with little
capacity to challenge mainstream thought.

On Oct. 12, children all over the country participated in a
simultaneous “Nationwide Pledge Across America.”
Meanwhile, the Nebraska state board of education revived a 1949 law
stating that every school must “arrange its curriculum in
such a way that the love of liberty, justice, democracy and America
will be instilled in the hearts and minds of youth.” How?
Through songs, stories about American heroes and of course,
studying the evils of communism (L.A. Times, Oct. 12).

As first grade teacher Suzy Grindrod laments, “Mandating
patriotism is a really scary thing. It leads to nationalism and
ultimately, to fascism.”

While the American superhero is being forced down our
children’s throats, the information we’re not given
reflects the propaganda machine. The media defines for us what is
news worthy and what is not.

To understand my point, just flip the channel to Anthrax TV
(formerly CNN) and observe the 24-hour coverage of the disease that
has claimed four American lives, as the death toll of Afghanis
climbs into the hundreds. The message? Some lives are worth more
than others.

We must have adequate information about all lives lost. Instead,
the front page of the L.A. Times details the mail system’s
security measures while a tiny article on page 13 reports that 374
Middle Eastern immigrants died when their ship sank off the coast
of Indonesia (L.A. Times, Oct. 23). Obviously, decisions about news
aren’t coincidental. The media’s obsession with anthrax
maintains a level of public fear that irrefutably justifies
war.

But our national advertising team is not only after American
consumers of the war myth. They hope to open new markets for
support of Operation Enduring Freedom in the Middle East. For help,
the state department has turned to Undersecretary of State for
public diplomacy (aka propaganda czar) Charlotte Beers. Beers was a
former advertising executive who started in the industry marketing
Uncle Ben’s Rice. Her new job? To sell America.

Sorry guys, but this ain’t rice. The public diplomacy team
believes that a couple “distinguished gentlemen” from
Washington trumpeting American justice on the Middle Eastern news
station, Al-Jazeera, have the potential to convince the people of
U.S. benevolence, a glaring testament to our basic arrogance and
naiveté.

As Siblani, publisher of Arab American News said, “The
United States lost the public relations war in the Muslim world a
long time ago, they could have the prophet Muhammad doing public
relations and it wouldn’t help” (Newsday, Oct. 23).

If anything, laughable attempts at winning Middle Eastern hearts
and minds could fuel more hatred. Witness the recent bombing of a
Coca-Cola factory in India and boycotts of Western-owned
supermarkets and goods from the United States, Britain and Germany.
Unlike what the mainstream media would have us believe, anger
towards U.S. actions is not limited to Muslims. In Greece, hundreds
of protesters placed large cement blocks across the road leading to
a Navy base supplying the U.S. military, demonstrating their
opposition to the bombings in Afghanistan. In short, informed
citizens of the international community are not having it.

We must ask ourselves what information is available to us and
which images fill our minds. Take a few minutes to walk down to the
corner of Gayley and Wilshire to gaze at the giant, patriotic mural
depicting a 60-foot high, M-16-toting female Marine. The words
“liberty and justice” are emblazoned below an image of
fire, an eagle and, of course, a stealth bomber. Such a depiction
does not come from the government. It comes from a fellow American
who apparently believes that a super model with a huge gun will
make war attractive to Americans.

Consciously or not, we are sending and reacting to highly
political messages everyday and it’s about time we decoded
them. We must strive to know the content of what we consume,
especially since the murder of millions of innocent people hinges
on our ignorance.