In “In Regards Patriotism” patriotism is said to be training and manipulation by the majority to go to battle in major wars, change the state of things in the country, and convince men that what they thought was wrong and to change it even if six months ago they said the opposite. Patriotism to me is learned and not trained. Training implies that I had never had a choice and I guess at the time no one really had a choice because if you went against the grain you were considered a traitor and everyone soon found out and began beating you up and treating you as dirt. The newspaper was instrumental in this time period because it told people what to believe and the majority was always right as in the government.
There are people in America who have reasons for being patriots and reasons for not. In this piece the author implies you couldn’t find three people who had their own reasons much less one person with one reason. Free will was limited and you never got to express the thoughts that you had if you even had them. I couldn’t take it if I couldn’t express my thoughts and reasons for making the decisions that I choose. Free speech was declared a right of all citizens and exercised very freely right now. Protest about big government, wars and battles in countries I feel we have no business in, and political powers that certain people hold.
The media is still a huge influence on how people feel and think. The TV more over the newspaper of this time has really picked and chose the key parts of certain things to show. They exemplify the deaths in certain battles or the destruction being created as the USA enters into countries and territories to look for people of importance to the government. The media chooses to show the worst parts of everything and gets you angry about the way the government is handling everything. No about of training can really get rid of how you feel and think but if it is taken to an extreme like brainwashing anything can be believed and anyone can be trusted.
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