Artifacts/Expressions of Popular Culture - Article Review Example

The article, “US War Culture and the Star Wars Juggernaut” by Denton-Borhaug (2016), is the excerpt's artifact. The artifact describes scenes from the movie “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” and Coke and Samsung ads that feature recruitment and branding ads for several military branches found in the United States. This artifact also explains how film producers used the movie to reach a large part of the contemporary culture, especially the people who go to movies and play games.

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This artifact defines the popular culture, such as ads and photographs of infants pop up in the author’s computer screen. It belongs to the mass media category of popular culture. It uses literature to develop the United States’ politics and how they have created the US war culture. This category also explains how video gaming and arcade games developed since the 1980s and expanded more into the Department of Defense (Denton-Borhaug, 2016). This popular culture effectively describes the relationship that has grown over the years between the US military and the Star Wars armaments systems.

The issues portrayed within this artifact include politics and the use of weapons in the military force. The firearms that the characters use in the movie are a real representation of the actual weapons that the United States’ military carry and use in wars. This artifact explains how video games' increased development in the United States has tamed, legitimated, and naturalized war among countries (Denton-Borhaug, 2016). The country's citizens unknowingly promote the use of lethal weapons in wars because the games and films make them see war as fun and an exciting adventure that they would want to venture in when they grow up.

This artifact's social issue is how war has slowly seeped into the Americans’ national identity and cultures; hence, structural inequalities and violence have increased in the country (Denton-Borhaug, 2016). It has also affected religion as religious individuals also support the Star Wars arguing that human conflict is inevitable, and killing is part of the human experience.

Conclusion

The author of this article has effectively defined how the media is being used to promote war and violence among all American citizens, especially the children who watch these films and play such games. They grow up believing that war and violence are inevitable, and this has negatively affected cultures across the country. Suppose this escapist entertainment form is not tamed. In that case, nuclear weapons and military battles will be a norm as children will grow up believing that the games and movies they play pose little danger of any connections with the violence in the real world.

Reference

Denton-Borhaug, K. (2016). US War Culture and the" Star Wars" Juggernaut. Theology and Science, 14(4), 393-397. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14746700.2016.1231975