Advanced Essay #3: America's Road from Nationalism to Violence

America is known for its displays of patriotism and admiration for the military. It is something that many take pride in, but perhaps shouldn’t without thoroughly looking into its background. The ideas of violence and joining the military are ingrained into American culture through nationalism and government manipulation of the media. Through extreme, modern-day nationalism, fuelled in part by paid patriotism, and corrupt recruitment methods, teens are pressured to join the military and manipulated to dehumanize their actions once they join.

The “Star-Spangled Banner” is a prime example of American nationalism in the media; it is played at nearly all major-league sporting events, most recognizably, football and baseball. The song was played at baseball games before it had actually become the United States’ national anthem, dating back to 1897 and being played at significant holidays and events, such as America’s entrance to World War I. In 1931, the “Star-Spangled Banner” became America’s national anthem, and was played more often throughout the first World War. Eventually, it became a tradition. While a song may seem harmless, it is a representation of America’s undying loyalty to itself while simultaneously encouraging war and violence in front of the millions watching. The song is often played as a tribute to America’s veterans, a display of admiration for the violence people have been forced to commit on behalf of our government. These actions of patriotism can be good in small bursts of pride for a home country, but overall lead to manipulation.

While the anthem has been played at baseball games for may decades, it only started being played at football games recently. However, this was not simply because the NFL felt like it; they are paid by the government to play the song before each game. This is an example of paid patriotism in our country. According to the National Public Radio, “the Pentagon spent $6.8 million to pay for patriotic displays during the games of professional sports teams.” The government needs more people to fight in their battles, so they pay the largest televised sports leagues to act patriotic and support their cause. From the time we are young, kids are encouraged to play and watch sports; this applies especially to boys, who are often expected to like baseball and football. When it is ingrained into our society for children to grow up watching these games, thus watching displays of nationalism, the country is ingraining militarism into these kids as well. America is paying millions of dollars of taxpayer money for nationalism and violence to be intrinsic to their youths’ childhoods and futures.

In addition to the government forcing patriotism on citizens, they specifically manipulate young adults in their recruitment methods. At the “Army Experience Center (AEC)” in Philadelphia, they lure young people in with video games and tell them about all of the positives of being in the military, yet none of the negatives. The purpose of the AEC was to “offer young adults a chance to immerse themselves in the hi-tech world of 21st century war craft while discovering well-paid, military career possibilities through touch screen technology.” This statement is a thinly veiled way of saying that they are recruiting young people to fight wars with technology. They, and other army recruitment centers, desensitize the killing of other beings by making it seem like a video game, especially with the future of fighting wars with drones. A person could be sitting in a room far away, safe and sound and able to go home to their family each night, but they are killing other people. By making war the equivalent of a video game young people are paid to play, the government takes away the meaning and horror in taking of others’ lives in order to compel young people to do so. This is a large scale manipulation of America’s young people by making war and violence common and seem like a game.

Overall, it can be concluded that the American government is brainwashing its citizens to make a killing factory based on nationalism. There are few policies regarding dangerous weapons, making violence much more prevalent in the United States than other countries. In addition to this fact, there are large companies being paid to act in “admiration” of their country to make their viewers feel patriotic. This leads to pressure to join the military in the name of serving the country they claim to love so much. These acts of patriotism, once combined with unethical military recruitment strategies, leads to teens joining the military without knowing the weight of their actions until it is too late. This manipulation of teens and young adults by the American government shows a clear path from nationalism to violence, resulting in the loss of not only countless lives, but entire childhoods.

http://mentalfloss.com/article/22150/why-do-we-sing-national-anthem-sporting-events