Anti-War Efforts

    The media now controls just about everything we hear and see, there is a multitude of reasons for this but the main one is because we have allowed this to happen. Rewind to 50 years ago and the media was nowhere near as present as it is now. Access to the media was rarer and word of mouth was the main way of communication, because of this we saw many people prosecuted for their Anti-war efforts. This was because the protection of the First Amendment only applied to the Federal Government, this means states could rid you of your Freedom of Speech if they see fit. This allowed for states to prosecute against Anti-war efforts if they saw fit. We now live in a time in which the media is at the tip of our fingers and also a time in which more laws have been added to help protect our Freedom of Speech. This protection allows for each person to speak their mind about whatever they see fit, but we still tend to lean on the mainstream media sources for our information. This has become both a negative and positive. A positive of this if we have the media at our disposal. We have information fast and information from all over the world but the negative is we fail to seek out other media sources, we fail to look at all sides of the media and the political spectrum. We've become a nation with selective hearing.

    Over time we have allowed the media to take control. There clearly are still news sources that report on the Anti-war efforts such as ANTIWAR.COM and The American Conservative but they are not a part of the mainstream media. I believe this is because we've moved away from a point in time where war consumes our lives. 50 years ago war was very present all throughout the world whereas now it still happens but it does not affect the majority of the population like it use to. Most of the time it goes unheard of, first off because the media does not speak about it, and secondly because of previous administrations that have demolished the efforts, according to MotherJones.com, "What’s missing is any sense of connection to the government, any sense that it’s “ours” or that we the people matter. In its place—and you can thank successive administrations for this—is the deepest sort of pessimism and cynicism about a national security state and war-making machine beyond our control. And why protest what you can’t change?" Some of the American people have no desire to keep the efforts going, as stated, "Why protest something you can not change?"

    We are all at fault for not being aware of all sides of the media this including the Anti-war efforts, we don't seek out this information therefore we are naive to it. We've fallen into a way of life where we follow the mainstream media and do not think for ourselves. We've let Anti-war efforts take the backburner and do not seek them out. Overall it is important for each and every person to be aware of the media and everything within it. We have to seek out all sources and if we fail to do that we are at fault.