An evaluation of the enforced democracy of iraq in realtion to modernity and globalisation

Essay by dunkUniversity, Bachelor'sB-, December 2004

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Shane Gladstone Globalisation: media & Culture

Assignment One: Essay

"An evaluation of the enforced democracy of Iraq by the United States in relation to modernity and cultural imperialism"

Introduction

"Poverty does not make poor people into terrorists. Yet poverty, weak institutions and corruption can make weak states vulnerable to terrorist networks and drug cartels. The U.S will stand beside any nation determined to build a better future by seeking the rewards of liberty for its people. The U.S will extend the benefits of freedom across the globe - by working to bring the hope of democracy, development, free markets and free trade to every corner of the globe" (National security strategy: 2002. http:/articles/globalisation.htm)

The above quotation, taken from a source found on the Internet promoting national security is a faultless example of the propaganda machine currently operating from within American society in relation to the unnecessary economic war in Iraq and the subsequent attempt by the U.S

government to enforce their democracy upon the defeated nation. The ideology circulated across the globe by George W Bush in a style that is aligned perfectly with Guy Debords Situationist theory of spectacle is one that relies greatly on raised, punched fists, Top-Gun patriotic attitudes and carnivalesque public speaking and works in combination with the world media organisations dumbing-down of all information released to society to create a surreal hybrid state of affairs. The information that society do have access to has been presented to them within a spoon-fed infotainment framework which has made the war, democracy and U.S elections comparable to an interactive reality television show or a high exposure saturated soap opera such as Dallas. The main aim of this study is to relate the above subject, that of enforced democracy, to the theories of modernity and cultural imperialism. However, before...