Facts About the US Constitution

pandawinx Wait...so refrences of religion weren't in the above's original text. They weren't added until later, for whatever reason (Wheather noble or deploable). How does that equate to fear-spreading? I find it patriotic, sure- but i'm not too clear on what the issue is? Or how adding in refrences to god somehow prevents communism? And if they were trying to prevent communism, i still don't see what's wrong with that. Communism (Nice as the concept is) has become a little corupt...A good example of this would be George Orwell's animal farm.

Cinders I apologize, I should have added context and debate relevance (Harold would have had my head for not doing so). But it was late, and I just wanted to post and run. Americans did to Communism in the 50s what they do to Islam today, and what they did to the Japanese in the 40s. It's not about the actual concept of Communism, any more than it's about the actual concept of Islam or Japan. It's about identifying an ambiguous evil to unite a country against. For more about the common enemy concept, I conveniently wrote an article for you. But the thing is, the flaws of communism aside, most who speak out against it literally have no idea what it is other than the fact that it's "bad" or "evil," and would "ruin America" if we became communists. The slogan "better dead than red" was a highly popular one in that era, and they meant it. The US government spread fear of communism to eliminate any dissent against the Cold War, in the same way that they spread fear of Islam and terrorism to try and eliminate any dissent against the Afghanistan or Iraq wars. It works, to an extent. But the tragic thing is, it has horrible consequences. People develop skewed and often outright wrong opinions of what "communism" is, what "Islam" is. Misinformation leads to fear and mistrust, which leads to hate, which is often generalized and applied to anyone who is not part of the "us" mentality, not part of the "group." Another way the US government tried/tries to unify the nation against our common enemy of the week, is to claim that we are "God's chosen people" and the enemy is "Godless." Which is why even today, especially on Fox News, you hear religion conflated with politics, championing that God condones capitalism and democracy and condemns any other economic or political system. We are the righteous and they are the heathens. In the 50s, many more people in the country were religious and by reminding them that they were in "God's chosen country," it helped to spread the propaganda. The point that this image is making is the US Government used fear to unite a nation during war time. But there are other ways to unite a nation, without common enemies, and without demonizing an entire religion, race, nationality or political/economic system just because it happens to be different than ours. Our Founding Fathers wrote "E Pluribus Unum", and they meant it. Because though we are many, and diverse, and practice different religions and have different political opinions, and belong to different economic classes, one thing unites us all that's always been there, and that's the fact that we're all American. We all have the right to live as we choose. That should be the thought that unites us - not fear of the different, but love and pride in our country and in each other.

pandawinx Oh, i'm sorry, i didn't mean to make assumptions about communism in itself, or the followerers--- more, well...I was always told the intention of communism was is to "make everyone equel", and "ownership being ascribed to the community as a whole or to the state". My only problem with it, is that, several of the countries which follow it don't seem to live by that rule, that's all. And yes, i agree about your points on "common enemy". I know second to none about American culture (Typical ignorant European attitude for ya, there. :P), but i assume it applies to other societies and nations as well. A lot of controversy (as you mentioned) has surrounded Muslims lately. Ever since 9/11 they've been a object of abuse/prejudice.

Chaann94 If I had only known this when I was 12 then I would have passed "American History" at school :P