Aadi: Week 5 - The Reciprocal Property of America
“Remember everything you learnt last year? I want you to forget all that.”
As I grew older I began to piece it together: it was not that the previous years were useless, it's just that they were all full of idealized propaganda.
Throughout elementary school, teachers fed us watered down versions of the truth behind our “great” nation, depicting America as this flawless symbol of freedom and peace. However, as you ascend through the educational system, your eyes are slowly exposed to the various atrocities and mistakes we have committed. America is the farthest thing from innocent.
Growing up Indian, I have watched innumerable Bollywood movies, and one common trope comes up in almost every single action movie: Pakistan has some terrorists and attacks India in some way, but the Indian Government and agents have too much aura and nationalism and obliterate the evil evil terrorists.
In American movies, that is rarely the case. Hollywood is not afraid to criticize its own state, in fact doing so frequently. I have seen so many movies where the government is openly shown to be corrupt or incompetent and the protagonists are left to clean up their mess. Honestly, that is one of the best things about America—actual freedom of speech.
Maybe the reason that Indian media holds little to no criticism over its government is not because their government is better, but rather the media has no choice.
This is actually a fascinating topic to think about, but let’s really think about it: I only brought up global politics because of my ulterior motive to talk about anime. 2. Image from the Manga
Later in the story, even though the concept of nuclear weapons had been completely erased from human memory, America still ended up reinventing them from scratch, saving Yoru’s life. Looking past how simply silly it is, the underlying point is clear. America loves war, and war, quite literally, loves it back.
To the rest of the world, America is not just the peaceful land of liberty and freedom we were sold in elementary school. Realistically, we are nothing more than a global superpower with a knack for starting conflicts and an economy so interconnected with violence that the War Devil herself treats us like her plaything.
I thought the way you introduced a contradiction that many students have experienced in their education in the beginning of your blog was really interesting. I liked the idea that each year of history seems to challenge what we learned the year before in an unique way or through a new perspective, especially when you consider how our understanding of America becomes increasingly more complicated each year. The comparison between how different film industries portray their governments like you mentioned in Bollywood and Hollywood add another perspective, showing how entertainment can influence the way people view their own countries.
ReplyDeleteThe way you transitioned into Chainsaw Man was really cool and I found the concept of the War Devil using American states as weapons to be interesting because it uses a character to represent the abstract idea of a country’s involvement in global conflict. I think you captured the underlying criticism of the manga really well through “America loves war, and war, quite literally, loves it back.” The way you used humor throughout the blog made it engaging as it balanced the seriousness of such a topic.
Your blog made me consider how much our perception of a country depends on the stories and experiences we are exposed to such as history textbooks, movies, books. They all can present a particular nation in different ways. I also wonder whether Hollywood’s willingness to criticize the American government makes the portrayals accurate or do they just add onto biases and exaggerations.
Hi Aadi! I found it very interesting how you connected history class to freedom of speech in the media to Chainsaw Man. Each example shows a different way that America can be perceived. I think this also shows why we need to get information from a variety of different sources to get the most accurate and trustworthy information, and use the collective knowledge to form an idea independently.
ReplyDeleteI relate strongly to your experience with learning about American history. In elementary school, I genuinely believed that America was a “superior” country and acted as the “good guy” during conflicts. As I got older, I realized that the reality of America is the total opposite of that. I would go even further to say that my ignorance was a result of the lies that had been told to me. We were never taught the full story of conflicts, only the “good” side of it.
It was interesting to read about how the rest of the world perceives America through Chainsaw Man. I found your comment about the War Devil treating the country as her “plaything” funny, but your point stands clear. This outside perspective exposes the reality of America that the education system refused to share with us as children. I also find this very ironic since a school is meant to expand education, while manga is read as entertainment, but in this case, the manga serves as a better reflection of reality.