The American Dream: A Can of Coke and a Lexus :: Argumentative Argument Media Papers

The American Dream: A Can of Coke and a Lexus Following the crowd in 2001 is the American way. Our lives have been infected with directions on who, how, and what we should be and do. Every day our televisions blare out talk shows, sitcoms, and soap operas to stagnate our minds. Our radios scream obscenities and false hopes with a beat that permeates our thoughts. Magazines, newspapers, billboards, televisions, and radios continually tell us what we need and want. Fashion dictates the way we dress, what styles we wear, and even the food we eat. We must follow rigid exercise routines in expensive gymnasiums, drive only the best automobiles, and buy only certain brands of products for our families to consume. The media constantly inundates our subconscious with messages that instruct us how to behave, what to say, and gives directions on what is necessary to be accepted in the elite privileged society that we perceive to be the American dream. This is the education we get from the world around us. Where has this propaganda come from? Why are we not able to see the forest for the trees? Why do we accept all that is handed to us without questioning the motives? We have been led to believe that â€Å"they† are always right. We have been taught to fear our own judgment, to accept life without question. Such programming begins at birth, is exemplified by our elementary education, and snowballs as we continue to learn. We are a society of sheep, waiting for slaughter. Paulo Freire describes this kind of education in his essay â€Å"The Banking Concept of Education† as: Education thus becomes an act of depositing, in which the students are the depositories, and the teacher is the depositor. Instead of communicating, the teacher issues communiquà ©s and makes deposits which the students patiently receive, memorize, and repeat. This is the â€Å"banking† concept of education, in which the scope of action allowed to the students extends only as far as receiving, filing, and storing the deposits. (349) Schooling in American society has become a process of transferring a pre-arranged amount of information to our children. It begins around age five and continues through the late teens, or until the students have successfully completed the courses required of them. Teachers force-feed a curriculum determined by the state, the county school board, and the school itself.