People and Heroes.
My paper for English 101H class of prof. F.Libman.

There is no heroes left in America. And may be in the whole world. This probably happened because of the crusade of mass media, which tends to eliminate real heroes and to substitute natural lack for them with its own made ones: Elvis, Marylyn, etc. Mass media usually chooses the most glamorous and suitable for their needs cult figures and proclaims them as heroes and idols. And it tends to humiliate and fight real heroes who do not actually contribute to the consumer character of the society. I bet Marylyn and Elvis (with all my respect to them) would be able (due to their physical and moral sets) to advertise Channel, Toyota or Neutrogenia in commercials, so it is really worth doing for the mass media to label these people as heroes. Ordinary people are supposed to identify themselves with celebrities and be encouraged to buy what the celebrities would buy. Imagine if somebody has Abraham Lincoln as his hero and identifies himself with him. Lincoln, Joan of Arc, Beethoven and other legendary great people could be made to advertise probably, but with a forced sense of irony, which is not always good for the product and the campaign. So mass media did its best to remove these old heroes from their pedestals in people's mind. The end of 20-th century in America lacks heroes only because of evil role of mass media.

I think that modern American parents should think of such a hero for their kids, who could not be touched by mass media propaganda. May be this hero should be a kid's Granny or uncle, or may be some remote and not used talented man or woman even from the other country (Pushkin, Joan of Arc, Emmanuel Cant etc.). This way a child will get an untouched heroic personality to level his life with and whose example to follow in life. I think it is important for people to have their own heroes. I think that prolonged lack of heroes can lead to the lack of adoration for the country of your birth. And such lack of adoration can lead to contempt for this country. It was too small gap between having heroes in their minds and not having them for Americans. Americans still feel a lot of warmth and proud when they think about their country, see American flag or other American symbols. It can not be a country this time without an official state power in it. So it is important to help people like this power in their country, otherwise they will get really unhappy and will stop caring about anything in the country. To make people like an official power is possible by letting them choose and adore outstanding people of this country, it's heroes.

Such feelings of respecting official power and symbols are unreachable for nowadays Russians for example. Nobody has Russian flags hanged out from the windows in Russia. Russians don't have colorful illustrated books full of pictures of the kids with a background of wavering Russian flag. If Russians are showed this sort of pictures they usually feel shame of even an idea of being proud of themselves and their country, they feel despair and they can become really irritated with this sort of trying to play on their patriot feelings. But en masse Russians do like their country, they just do not like official power in it. I think it all began with exploitation by mass media Russian heroes at first to support Communism in the country and then to fight with Communism and to support Democracy and Consumerism with all its negative things as advertising and nihilism. Suitable heroes were used as wide as possible and others were showered with dirt. People tend to believe what they are said on TV and radio, so they suddenly felt being betrayed with old heroes of their youth, and then betrayed again and again. And finally people felt being betrayed with their own country. It is not natural for them to like anything or anybody in this country anymore, because their sympathies and love can be used in order to advertise something, or attack their feelings.

Imagine such a horrible thing as mass media reaction here in America against American Flag: a lot of shows proclaiming that the Flag covers atomic bombing of Japan in 1945, that none of Vietnam war memorials have names of killed innocent (not soldiers, but kids!) Vietnamese on them, that the Flag covers all sorts of other evil things you can think of, and then imagine that America is given a new Flag, would people still like to see photos of the kids in front of this new one? But why I'm speaking about American Flag?! It is not a hero, it is a patriotic symbol of which I am probably jealous, because I do not have a loved one for my own country. And anyway American mass media would never dismiss this symbol from its pedestal, it goes really good as a background for so many advertisements!..



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