P is for Propaganda

Propaganda was initially employed as an effort to raise public health awareness and for various other attempts to influence the public to support one cause or another. It soon became a tool of war, as governments used detailed images and persuasive words to urge citizens to do their part to aid war efforts.  During World War II, the Allies spent a considerable amount of time using propaganda to promote enlistment, war bonds, rationing, "victory" gardens, safe sex and patriotism on the home fronts.  

These are some of the best, most creative and/or witty propaganda I've come across in my time as a History major:

And this is not propaganda, but I saw it in a WWII class a few months ago, and I LOVE it:

Cheers!

Ignorant Bliss

I was browsing msn.com earlier today, as it is my preferred news and information site of choice. I noticed that they had a link for "Ten years of 'Week in Pictures'" (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4999736), so of course I had to check it out. I love photography. I love how a good photographer can capture so many emotions and such beauty, freezing it forever to gaze at over and over again. However, once I started clicking through the pictures, there were so many that were of bodies - from war, tsunamis, earthquakes, hurrricanes, tornadoes, etc. I was disappointed. I wanted to see rainbows, exotic animals and scenery, not blood-spattered children wailing over the bodies of their murdered parents.

I began to self-analyze (yet again). The majority of us Americans tend to let ourselves forget about all of the terrible things that go on in other countries. We settle into our oblivious little bubbles of work, sports, church, shopping and television, and we choose to remain ignorant to the awful things that some people (and a lot of children) face every single day. The fact that these horrendous acts are not being done in our backyard make it so much easier to ignore.

Is it selfish to spend so much time worrying about what we're going to wear to our friend's wedding or where we'll meet our coworkers for lunch next week? To be so completely absorbed in all of the superficial things that go on in our lives while children die of starvation because their mothers were killed by rebels in some war? Part of me wants to stay ignorant. I don't like to think about the atrocious things happening to innocent people, especially children. Part of me wishes that I never had to see a news story, view pictures or read an article involving any of those awful things.

I would be perfectly content to just go about my happy little life, unaware of any and all tragedies going on elsewhere. I could blissfully tend to my home, raise my children, keep my man happy. Go to work, have coffee, gossip, shop. Watch movies, go to karaoke and dinner. Now that it's in my head, though, I'm afraid it will not leave. I will dwell on it, think about it, dream about it. It will consume me until I get off my ass and do something, anything to help. What can I do though? I can't very well start adopting orphans from Uganda. I don't have the means or the living space for that.

Maybe I could start a charity or walk a mile or something....