Mintz+Wall+Three+Reflection

Americans use fear and hate to their advantage. Fear is one of the most base and primal feelings, and so once it is stirred in someone, it can be very powerful. In every war, the American government has attempted to make the people to fear the enemy. If they fear the enemy, they hate the enemy and want to destroy them, and so are totally on board any sort of effort against them. World War II and the Cold War in particular were sort of a golden age for this type of propaganda. The people were told that Hitler wanted to invade the United States to destroy their way of life, and that the Japanese were ruthless inhuman animals who wanted to kill you. The Soviets were supposedly going to come to America and make everyone miserable and poor. John Steinbeck does this sort of fearmongering, too. His book, //The Grapes of Wrath//, is an attempt to incite a feeling of loathing toward the American upper class. He hoped that this loathing would lead to support for a change that he believed needed to be made. Even today, politicians and religious leaders are constantly telling us that we're under attack, our family values are in danger, it is the end of days... Americans are always at war (with other nations, with each other, with themselves), and fear is a very powerful weapon.