Question 3: Thomas Paine

In England, an author named Thomas Paine proclaimed America as an incredibly successful and joint country because America has diversity and the Americans were united. There is diversity but there is racism as well as unjust political, social ,and economical issues. Paine describes America as an united and concord country but in reality it isn’t. There is corruption in the government and amongst the people.

           Paine states that “simple operation of constructing government on the principles of society and the rights of man, every difficulty retires, and all the parts are brought into cordial unison.” The government will have problems whether it may be because of the people or bis businesses. The government will negotiate or use propaganda. The purpose of propagandas was to bolster the pride as U.S. citizens while dehumanizing the enemy. Now days television commercials and even the 6 o’clock new is like propaganda and it influences the people of the United States immensely. In the news industry there is something called video news release which is when public relation firms create pretaped news release that is used to advertise a company without the public knowing or even noticing. The production would look exactly like the 6 o’clock news. The videos that are being shown through the news can be old stories too; however, the audience doesn’t know this. The news companies will use these videos to show the watchers that a certain product helps cure cancer and that it is beneficial to their health. This is how the public relation firms advertise the stocks of a company. Although this is absurd, the people watching the news easily believe the program. Companies know that if a CEO or someone from the company approaches a potential customers to advertise a product, it is less likely that the company’s profit will increase. Instead corporations utilize famous anchors on the news or scientists or doctors to say something about the product that may be only 5% true. This is a similar tactic that is used to shift public opinion. Even the government utilize this strategies like this. These tactics are used so that the people of the government could get what they want. Most of the congressmen are incredibly wealthy. They want to benefit themselves by putting out these clips.
         During World War I, President Woodrow Wilson used the sinking of the ship, Lusitania, in order to shift public opinion. He wanted the people to be for the war because the U.S. military can not go into war without the approval of the Americans. The Germans were notified that the Lusitania has weapons under the floorboard because there were German spies in the government. However, the U.S. has spies in the German government so even though the U.S. knew that the path of the Lusitania was infested by German u-boats, the U.S. let the ship sail. This resulted of the death of 128 Americans out of 1,200 people that was boarded on the ship and died. This proves not only is there corruption in local news and businesses but also in the government as well. The decisions that the government makes is supposed to benefit the people of the United States but it doesn’t. The decisions are made so that the people of the government get things their way. The lies of the government are successful because the people controlling the government continuously utilize these tactics so that the people side with the government.

            Paine mentions that America is “concord” and that there are “people from different nations,” but the racism that occurs throughout the United States proves that there isn’t harmony in the U.S. The police brutality, the anti sentiment during the 9/11 incident, and other events indicate that there is hatred towards each other. The fact that the word xenophobia also exists shows that there are people that fear foreigners. During 9/11 and even now there is a hatred and disliking towards the Saudi Arabians and Israelites. The Arabians would be deported back and they would not be able to get jobs or they would be fired. Also if Arabians lived in the Unites States before this incident, they would still be affected. Not only that, the Arabians were beaten in the streets as well. The Palmer Raids was instituted which allowed U.S. soldiers to burst into people’s homes without a warrant if the occupants were “suspected” terrorists. This is definitely not a “cordial” country and the government was and still is unjust.

            Paine’s thoughts of America generates the thought that he has never been to America. He hears the news but there is a huge possibility that it is false information.