I am currently reading a book titled "The Name of War" by Jill Lepore. The book explains the little known, but very brutal war between early colonists and the indigenous population of New England. Lepore explains that one of the broad catalysts to the war was the obvious cultural clash between both groups . As the war escalated and the brutality increased, the English feared that their tactics would be considered uncivilized by the rest of Europe. Their fear stemmed from the understanding that through their ruthless killing of indians they would diminish their godly image such as the Spanish conquistadors had done before them. The English then developed a way to win the war and the hearts of Europe through words. By using English literacy as a weapon they realized that the war would be recorded in the way in which they saw it. The indian population did not publish articles or books throughout the war like the English which gave way for a English biased view of how the war played out. Almost all accounts stemming from English authors down played their brutality and emphasized the "savage" nature of the Indian. This curtain of disinformation led to English solidarity abroad and helped them to maintain their "civil" image. I found this interesting because it proves the power of media even during our earliest stages of American society.
Stream of conscience, go.....This is the first blog I've ever written. Blogging for me is a new thing, and I'm a little out of my element here. I sometimes read blogs in my spare time, but I've never thought about creating my own. The process of actually creating my blog was easy. The actual blogging itself has been a little difficult, especially my failed attempt to "vlog". I'm working out my camera troubles, but what I've realized is the difference between actually speaking to someone and recording a one sided conversation with yourself. It was difficult for me to even ramble into my judgmental little web cam because I've never really done that before (unless you talk to yourself a alot, you know what I mean). I kept running out of things to say. This made me think that maybe a lot of the conversations we have are based off of the reaction and input (either verbal or non) of whomever we are speaking to. Without a direct audience, I was caught off guard. My written blog has been somewhat easier to produce, so maybe I'm just camera shy. I'll get over it. I think I'm going to have fun with this blog.
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