Matt+-+American+Psyche

media type="custom" key="25316230"= __The American Psyche__ = Here is the link to my blog. It's a little unorganized because I have changed my topic so much. It also has some nice relaxing music so watch the volume on your computer: [|My Blog]

This is a video that was related to the video used in my movie. It just goes to show us that we do not know all that goes on and can not generalize on the basis of what we see and hear. media type="youtube" key="NpdaQRGSv0k" width="425" height="350" I have learned key aspects of what it means to be an American. The main thing needed is an opinion. We exercise our freedom of speech whether we think we do or not. Regarding that, I have learned that Americans tend to be individualist meaning they put their needs before their country's. This is opposed to collectivism, which means the opposite (country first). This leads to problems especially in the case of the Middle East. Not only do the populous believe country first but they believe Islam first. We, being an individualist Christian nation, have almost no common ground (generalizing of course) It creates issues, being an Imperialist country as well; I use the term Imperialist lightly in most respects.

I hate to say this, but another thing I have noticed through all my research is that ignorance is also a key part in the psyche. Ignorance breeds more ignorance, and it started with us being isolated with the rest of the world (surrounded by two oceans) and continued to grow from there. Most people don't even know what is going on in Iraq, and more so believe that what they hear on television is utter fact. I will say that prior to researching the Halliburton scandal, I had no idea; now I am utterly against the war. Those are at least two things every American has, in some respect: ignorance and an opinion. Upon researching though I also found that there were many hopeful insights into the psyche. It is true, I think, that we are starting to brush away this 'ignorance' and are also becoming more open-minded. In one source it was stated that this introspection into ourselves and others and our government is healthy for the psyche, it shows that we are conscious of that which is around us. This is a good thing. After the "Bush Years" we need open-minds. You would think that those years would have produced a more conservative mind, which it did at first, but now we see people saying, "I don't trust my government or news," and "We did mess up Iraq badly (or the more conservative 'I think Iraq was mishandled.')." I included the last section in my video to show that so long as people remain hopeful, we will overcome whatever obstacle we need to to attain the hope or dream. Skip's quote, that we need 'to realize that the people need to change before the government does' and the connected clips of interviewees expressing their hopes for change, really shows that the people are ready for it. Regardless of political views or anything, everyone has hopes for the future.

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