I honestly value everything that I have learned this semester. Even if we read articles or watched documentaries on issues that I already knew about, it was really refreshing to have our weekly discussions and hear other people's opinions and takes on what we were talking about. I think that is part of what made the class so special to me.
It really upsets me that we live in a country in which we are constantly being lied to by what are supposed to be "trusted" news sources. The journalists that we watch nightly and turn to for important news are repeatedly misleading us or flat out lying in order to further the agenda of those in charge of them. It is honestly pretty sickening to me. What is worse than this being the case is that most Americans are completely unaware that they are being lied to. They have no idea that what they are listening to nightly is all perfectly crafted in order to present one image and one story, rather than to represent the truth and get out a real news story. I think what also makes me very upset is knowing that so many Americans are completely unwilling to acknowledge that the news could be incorrect or misleading, because they want to believe that it is just the skeptical liberals who hate America trying to bring down our news system. I think everyone in America should be required to take courses such as this one or read the articles we have read. I think everyone could stand to be a little more educated.
Something that has really stood out to me throughout the course of the semester is the reoccurring idea of the Other. I did not realize how repeatedly we create new Others in our society, and they are all created in order to benefit those in power. It is really disturbing to me. It has to lead one to wonder who the next enemy is going to be. I had always thought of the Other in the context of horror movies, but never really thought about it as much in our society, but it really is completely true. We have to have people in our culture that we cannot trust. We have to constantly live in a state of paranoia. As Americans, we are supposed to be able to trust our leaders and those in charge, but we are always being lied to or told to hate new enemies. It is truly disturbing how many people blindly follow what they are told, do not think twice about the information they are given, and then just live in ignorance.
After this class, I am truly going to be even more conscious and skeptical about what information I am being given. I am just always going to be thinking that any new "dangerous fad" or trend is just being told to us to keep us scared and keep us from thinking about the real problems in our culture. We really would much rather fear something completely detached and unrelated to us than think about things that we really should be afraid of. As Americans, we want to live in this ignorance. We don't want to think that we could be at fault for anything and that there is nothing inherently wrong with our society. I think that we really need a huge wake up call and we deserve to be told the truth.
Overall, I really enjoyed this course. It was definitely my favorite course of this semester, and I really appreciated all of our discussions and everyone in the class for participating as much as they did. Also, I really thought the readings we were assigned were extremely thought-provoking and smart, and the films we watched were enlightening and fit in extremely well with what we were learning. I honestly enjoyed the class a lot and will miss it.
On a final note, I want to say remember what Public Enemy told us: Don't Believe the Hype
