Jensen’s article…wow. It’s a great summary of everything we have explored all semester long and at the same time introduced many new concepts to consider as well. The general consensus in class on Monday seemed to be that it was too much of a critique and that the guy was a complete anti-American. To my surprise, I actually didn’t feel that way after reading through his work. Granted, there were a few things that I thought made it difficult to ingest but aside from that I thought that Jensen presented a down-to-earth argument that was extremely thought provoking due to his many relatable points. I don’t necessarily agree with many of them but if I were, say, a really stingy college professor grading huge final papers (no connection being made here), I would undoubtedly give him an A. In summary, he criticized the framework of being American and broke that down into three areas of our patriotism that we all seem to blindly follow: The notion that we are the “best” country ever, the social meaning of “supporting our troops” and the belief that “freedom” is the best thing ever, regardless of its real world implications and the expenses incurred to support it. He uses many comparisons to break down each aspect here and I thought they were very easy to, at least, relate to. He definitely seems like that guy who grew up in school and had no friends because he was that kid in class who reminded the teacher when the homework was due. One thing I can complain about is that most of his arguments were based on the fact that he truly understands human nature and speaks on behalf of humanity to relate to some of his points, especially in the first two sections. Along with that and more specifically, the only other thing I found disturbing was how he assumed that most of us would not encourage a ten-year-old thinking he is the “greatest” and that, automatically, most great leaders are modest about their greatness. Michael Jordan won’t tell you there is a better basketball player than him. Genghis Kahn won’t tell you he is inferior in any way. Alexander the “Great”…well you get the point. Plus I’m pretty sure any parent would absolutely encourage their kid if he displayed signs of confidence early on. Hell, in this day and age they’d try to convince Bill Cosby to re-air Kids Say The Darndest Things just so their little honey boo boo could be a 30-minute star. That’s beside the point though. Regardless, he makes valid points. While his work maintains a negative and overly critical undertone, he still makes a good argument by sticking to his claim that “the facts do matter… and the ‘greatest nation on earth’ mantra tends to lead us to get the facts wrong”. As he mentions too, he does not seek to belittle anything, anyone or any organization. He doesn’t use legitimate evidence to “prove” that America sucks, merely because he isn’t trying to do that in the first place. He really is just providing food for thought and I think that is very overlooked by most of his critics. Also, his analysis of what support really means when contrasted with the support from a friendship was a great eye-opener. He may be a dick in many aspects, un-American and maybe even a hater in all other areas of life but he still makes a good argument, sticks true to his beliefs and does not judge others for theirs either.
COMM 410: International Communications
Course Discussion Page
I did not read through the entire article this week so it would be hard for me to agree that it was a good compilation of everything we discussed throughout the semester. I understand that Jensen was trying to be objective in his perception of America, but it seemed too ridiculously one-sided to me. I have never thought negatively about patriotism from anyone from any culture unless they feel patriotic about a terrorist group.
I do not agree with you on the stance that you thought the article was fair. It seemed like Jensen was anti-American in every facet of life. I’m all for questioning the government when there is substantial reason to worry about how it may affect the entire nation in the future, but Jensen was attacking beliefs, not actions. This is where I feel his article lost all legitimacy in my mind. I believe that Americans should be patriotic, with that being said, I am probably one of Obama’s biggest critics because I can’t stand just about everything he does. However, I am able to distinguish my dislike of Obama and the shady things he does from America. Jensen seemed to lump American ideas and infrastructure into one large category and it is just asinine to do so. That would be like me saying that the Baltimore Ravens won the Super Bowl last year, therefore every team that plays football is the best team in the world. Now my argument is about a much smaller and more insignificant part of life but the underlying issue is still there.
I don’t understand why “The notion that we are the “best” country ever, the social meaning of “supporting our troops” and the belief that “freedom” is the best thing ever, regardless of its real world implications” these are such terrible things. Why is it so terrible to be patriotic? Why is it so terrible to support the troops? Why is it so terrible to believe that freedom is a great thing? These are all things that people in less developed nations only dream of having. Can you imagine in places like the Sudan if their citizens could support their troops rather than be shot by them? Would the Sudanese like to be able to support their troops? I tend to think they would like to have that pride. Who knows, maybe Jensen was just having a bad day because he got to work late because a guy in front of him was driving slowly with a “support the troops” bumper sticker.
I found you post extremely entertaining to read. You have a good sense of humor from what I can gather from your post, and I think that was helpful given the topic of the assigned reading for this week. Jensen really does have a somewhat negative tone throughout the article. If I had to guess, I would have to say that he leans closer to the anti-American side rather than a pro-American man. But, like you said in your post, although he may seem a little bit biased, he does provide the facts. He also gives enough background and detail to support his facts. This is why I find articles like these educational and thought provoking. I too did not like how Jensen said that the majority of us Americans would try to convince a ten-year-old child that he is the best just because he is an American. To me, this seems like a very mild form of brain washing, a huge ego boost that could help shape and mold that child’s way of thinking for years to come, and may become harmful to him or others. Lastly, I got a small little chuckle about the part when you said Jensen was probably the type of kid who had no friends in high school and reminded the teacher of when the homework was due. I am not sure I agree completely with that, but was still somewhat humorous. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed reading your blog entry and learning a little bit more about your perspective on this certain topic.