Public Ignorance: Dealing with The American Governments Interpretations

Ignorance is bliss to a vast majority of the national population. There are very few that are knowledgeable in regards to government activity beyond the evening news. The numbers of those watching the evening news are even dwindling as its viewers are tuning into more interesting programs. Orson Scott Card highlights this voluntary limit to public intellect in his Ender's Game. His world is set in the future as earth faces an imminent attack by an alien race dubbed the Buggers, and the international community is in chaos. Yet, the general population seems to be willingly ignorant of the true state of the world. Their government feeds them information that assures them that earth forces are going to destroy the Buggers. This situation should sound familiar, as the Bush-Cheney administration has been assuring the nation of the eventual defeat of the terrorists since the notorious 9/11. The public in both the science fiction of Ender's Game and modern America does not search beyond these reassurances for the bare truth of the situations. The general population is content in their ignorance, and they shun the harsh reality that could pull them from their sheltered and happy lives.

On September 11, 2001, the United States was shocked as it watched the destruction of its twin towers and pentagon by the hands of terrorists. Not since Pearl Harbor had America experienced such a blatant slap to their national security and the public outcry for safety was enormous in the aftermath of 9/11. Similarly, Card's world was thoroughly shaken as it experienced its first encounter with another sentient species through the Bugger's first invasion. Suddenly, the world did not simply have to defend itself from each other, but from an outside force as well. As the American government strived to immediately remedy the situation, they solidified the nation and guided their anger towards one enemy, the terrorists. Following the Bugger's attack, the international government, the hegemony, unified the world's outrage and fear into a hatred for the Buggers. With the fuel of the public anger, both governments declared a war on the enemies, America's war on terror, and Card's Bugger wars. Both wars focused on pre-emptive strike, destroying the enemies before they had a chance to wreak more havoc in the United States or the Earth.

In the years since 9/11 though, the public interest in the war has rapidly declined, making this war in Iraq the most forgotten war in America's history. The decades following the Bugger invasions experienced similar results, and the international community no longer regarded the Buggers as an immediate threat. As long as the Bush-Cheney administration consistently reassures the populace that the terrorists in Iraq are dwindling, the population is confident in the United States forces. Unlike the Vietnam war, where there was a constant video feed of the front line into the news, the war in Iraq does not even dominate the evening news except to state that positive change is coming about. As the international governments assure their populations that the International fleet is closing in on the Bugger world, the public sentiment is that the genius forces will indefinitely defeat the Buggers. They have almost no knowledge of the work of the International fleets, and to them, the few feeds of their brilliant children embarking on a trip to the infamous Battle School suffices as evidence. The governments' attempts to hide real information is not even the real issue, as the majority of the population willingly enters into this state of ignorance.

The numbers of casualties in Iraq is not common knowledge, nor is the actual impact this war has actually had on the terrorist community. Tune in for about twenty minutes to BBC and the war suddenly comes into sharp focus as more than the blurry captures of some obscure men with ties to Al Queda. The actual plan of the IF to defeat the Buggers is known by absolutely no one in the public, nor is the true meaning of this Battle School to which their most promising children are sent. As Ender sits down for a talk with Colonel Graf, he is suddenly faced with the harsh reality of the Bugger wars, and that not only is the battles intended to occur in the immediate future, but that the defeat of the Buggers is far from guaranteed. Yet, the public does not try to see and understand the wars. Far from doing this, the populations seek to hide behind their lack of knowledge, preferring blissful ignorance to the worrisome state of mind that comes from truth.

This desire to live forever in a state of contentedness through ignorance is dangerous for the entire population as it gives the governments power to carry out its own agendas. The more the American population accepts the simple generalizations of the Bush-Cheney administration in regards to the war on terror, the more they are allowing the government to completely and absolutely control this war. As the international population in Card's world allowed the IF to have its own way, they eventually grew into complete ignorance of their activities. The IF was able to do whatever it felt necessary to accomplish their goal, without the check of the approval of the people to hinder them. This is the ultimatum that the United States faces as its public grows in their nonchalance for this ongoing war. Public indifference must give way to intrigue as to the government's true intentions and the real actions of this war. Card warns about the evils of the indifference in times of war, and the majority of the population needs to go beyond watching the same evening news but actually begin attempts to comprehend the actions of its government.