Patriotism In The Michael Monsoor

In 2004, a soldier by the name of Michael Monsoor graduated from BUD/S school (A Navy Seal training facility) effortlessly. Almost two years later, he was fighting on a roof in Ramadi, Iraq. While producing cover fire for his SEAL team mates, an enemy insurgent managed to toss a grenade through a window where the SEALs were positioned. The grenade struck Monsoor and rolled in front of him. Without even the slightest hesitation, he threw himself over the explosive and absorbed the blast. Thirty minutes later, Monsoor died because of the explosion. Doing what he did allowed the other SEALs in the room to live (Klaidman 3). Michael Monsoor is a prime example of what it means to be courageous and to have valor in its highest form. He was awarded the Medal of Honor, the United States of America’s highest military honor. When hearing this story, it is safe to say that Americans have an extreme animosity towards the enemy insurgents. This illustration of patriotism is one of the reasons why Americans believe that they are endowed the right to discriminate or assimilate people who may be affiliated with these enemies. One way these emotions can be amplified is through the use of one of America’s favorite pastimes.

If it’s anything from a romantic comedy to an action-packed hero’s journey, movies have a psychological approach to influence the way you view certain actions. For example, when you watch a film that focuses primly on the aspect of an alleged murderer, it forces the average viewer to immediately conclude that the accused is guilty based on the acclimation of previous films. It is a slow conditioning that brings forth conflicting, yet corresponding evidence that the more you observe said influences, the greater your interpretati...

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... tromp out evil, allows for two of the following to occur: makes the viewer believe that what the “good” did in order to overcome evil is moral and that the side that they’re on is always the correct one. When agreeing with what the movie portrays as positive moral values, people don’t understand that they are essentially consenting to murder. To most people, there is a critical difference when separating war from murder. They believe that war is tolerable, given the circumstances, and that if it means to kill off the other side completely, they would be perfectly content. When these people hear murder, however, they become particularly intolerable. This implicates the hypocritical views that only a select few may detect. In fact, war is just legalized murder. Propagating these values in films creates these illusions and doing so stunts all hope for moral equality.