Places And Forms Of Power

Today I will deal with the notion: places and forms of power.

First, What is power? Power is the capacity or ability to direct or influence the behavior of others or the course of events. Power can be exercised with different ways : terror, manipulation, violence, …

My problematic is: How the government of United States of America used propaganda and repression to control their population during the cold war ?

First, I will talk about a form of propaganda thought comics, particularly with the cover of the Captain America of 1954, and then I will talk about all the repression during the cold war.

Captain America is a comic book, published by Marvel Comics. It’s an eponymous novel, which show, this superhero fighting against the dictatorship. But, this comic book is also a propaganda tool. Indeed, on the cover of the 78th number, published in 1954, we can see Captain America and his friend fighting against 2 “supervilains”. Both looks unhuman, and have on their uniform the hammer and sickle, symbol of the communist party. Whereas America wears the stars and stripes, symbol of US, not just as his uniform, but also on his shield. On the top of the cover, we can read : Captain America, … Commie smasher. Indeed he is carrying his enemy, red skull, above his head, and show his strength against him. Literally, it symbolizes what happens when America face up it enemies. The public concern by this comic is the young person, and we can easily imagine the message induced. In fact, cover appears during the cold war, durind the “Red scare” in America. In fact, the expansion of Communism feared US. And this model of propaganda wasn’t enough to control the population.

That’s why, US, country of liberty and democracy, used a lot of repression to avoid it spreadind. But, this repression, following McCarthyism, was particular paranoiac and source of many injustices. In fact, the USA feared a possible communist conspiracy. Thousands of American were accused of being communist sympathizers, many of them have their passport confiscated, other where jailed for refusing to give the names of other communist. On the document untitled “Cold War Hysteria” written by Jane Foster, we heard the story of a wife, but also of a daughter, who just want to go back home. But she is kept away by the government, because she looks suspicious. This situation isn’t based on relevant fact, it just show an abuse of power. On another document, named Not you, we discover some practices of US to impress their enemies. In fact, they used blackmail and fear to obtain what they want. For example: “If you don’t give the name of communist sympathizers, you lose your job. You choose.” That’s what happens for this man who betrays his lover’s brother to keep his job.

To conclude, thought this different document, we can easily imagine the terror in US. It’s also quite ironic to notes that the United states, kingdom of democracy and equality used propaganda to obtain what they want, exactly like their enemies.

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