Campaining for Democracy Abroad

This article was for my Popular Culture class, but he concludes with an interesting and insightful thought. 

"It has been a chronic symptom of an inward-looking political culture, where campaigns to defend democracy and morality abroad serve as little more than extensions or projections of the struggle to define these values at home."

MacDougall's "Red, Brown, and Yellow Perils: Images of the American Enemy in the 1940s and 1950s" 

So... I'd like to extrapolate on inward-looking political culture, but I have no time for anything but one question for a later day. This struggle to define democracy and morality in the United States is easy to see in the past decade. Could it have contributed to our involvement in the Middle East?

Barbarian!

Belatedly catching up on articles for Popular Culture. I just finished an interesting one by MacDougal discussing images of American enemies in WWII and the Cold War. Barbarianism is the term of the week.

In museum studies, we're started asking "What is culture? What is civilization?" It fascinates me that these questions are so integral to the events of the 18/19th centuries in the conflict with the Native Americans. Somehow, Technology, Progress, Culture... these ideas give people a sense of superiority. I know I enjoy this civilization, but I can't justify it. It's a still a mystery. MacDougal's argument discussed how the Japanese were depicted as inhuman and barbaric during WWII, but while geography is important, he contends that racial prejudice is the culprit. At one point he draws a direct line between Pearl Harbor and Custer's Last Stand. That idea, that not only certain people or groups can be uncivilaized, and thus inferior, but also an entire race.... it's crazy, but we have seen it. MacDougal explains why the Japanese-Americans were the only ones deprived of their homes, their lives, and their pride. I think he could have expounded on the pragmatic, political reasons why they were the only ones, but he makes a sound argument on racial predjudice being the catalyst.

We've been over images of America's enemies in length in class. Dr. Dorsey makes me smile. He gave us 6 terms with which to identify war posters and is so flummoxed when we don't speak up and guess what we think they are. His face and is tone say "this is ridiculously easy. Come on guys." We've identified so many examples, I don't know how anyone could miss those questions on the test. It has become ridiculously easy.

Reading these popular culture articles instills this desire to catch up, but what an impossible task that would be. Hours of movies, comic books, video games, web surfing... a century of popular culture for a girl who still dislikes it? I took this class in hopes that it would redeem itself, and I could drop my prejudice of all things "popular." How much like a snob do I sound?  Especially after saying I don't understand what makes civilization the best form of society. However, if anything this class is re-emphasizing the power and ubiquity of these popular culture manifestations. As I learn more, I'm becoming almost fearful of this creature that somehow seems in influence every nuance of my life.