A late Christmas gift appeared at the house today which was wrapped in a bit of media psychology irony. Jacques Elull’s “Propaganda, The Formation of Men’s Attitudes” arrived in an Amazon wrapper emblazoned with a bold advertisement for the militeristic action video game “Call of Duty, Black Ops II.” Somehow the juxtiposition between “The Formation of Men’s Attitudes” and the media content in “Call of Duty” struck me in regard to the amount of militainment Americans consume on a regular basis these days, wether they choose to or not. It’s no wonder that at a cognitive level we are so “accepting” of so many of the activities we witness taking place in the world today. What’s a little desensitization matter in the long run (the diminished emotional responsiveness to a negative or aversive stimulus after repeated exposure)?

Amazon’s wrapper for Call of Duty.