Wars_Evolve_by_Modern_Technology

Wars Evolve by Modern Technology Would you rather push a button from a room and demolish thousands of people, or would you rather be on the ground shooting people' Current wars are in the hands of modern technology. In “From Realism to Virtual Reality: Images of America’s Wars,” Bruce Franklin describes many different wars by telling the reader in detail about the modern technology used to fight and capture moments in history. Franklin’s article is compared with Pablo Piccaso’s painting, “Guernica.” Piccaso creates an image that wars evolve through ideas of technology and they still end in tragedy. The article and the painting both describe wars changing through modern technology. Franklin’s purpose and claim is to inform Americans that wars change through modern technology. Wars are visualized and perceived differently, because of modern technology. Present technology, such as, pictures and videos show people that historic wars were more brutal than they have been imagined. Battles have become more graphic and more of a novelty, because of current technology. People are allowed to see the truth and not an exaggerated fable or painting. Causes for wars have not changed, only the weapons have. There are endless and mindless creations on modern technology that can and will be used for war. Franklin uses logos as evidence to show Americans that people use modern technology as an avenue to access information about wars faster. This became almost instant “in Vietnam, the first war to be televised directly into tens of millions of homes” (Franklin 407). This type of present technology was ground breaking to Americans. It might be too graphic and sickening to watch even though it is life saving. If we had the modern technology we had in the Vietnam War during World War I and World War II, we may have saved lives and possibly ended both wars quicker. We may have lost the Vietnam War, but we gained insight from people that were not fighting the war, such as politicians, scientists, and inventors to change our country’s war tactics and improve our technology. New and updated technology has allowed our country to be informed more. People need modern technology to feel more connected with wars. Pathos is used in this article to show that individuals feel an emotion towards pictures and videos. People have more of an emotion towards a war that has pictures or videos. Take Piccaso’s painting, “Guernica” it takes time and an artistic mindset to grasp the concept that he is sending a message about a war. Bruce Franklin, an English Professor at Rutgers University describes in detail very quickly about the first pictures that were taken in the Civil War (403-404). Imagine viewing an image from a Civil War battle in the 1860’s that “contains numerous corpses of Confederate soldiers, rotting after lying two days in the rain” (Franklin 403). Modern technology is an idea of emotion that captures a moment; the technology could be pictures or a new contraption, such as, a missile. Today’s wars are impacted by the hypnotism of modern technology. The author uses ethos by telling Americans that technology is credible. Wars have gone from prehistoric weapons to weapons of mass destruction. Franklin tells the reader, “one of the main goals of the warmakers was to create the impression of a ‘clean’ technowar-almost devoid of human suffering and death, conducted with surgical precision by wondrous mechanisms-why not project the war from the point of view of the weapons” (412)' We don’t have to see dead bodies, blood, and guts anymore, just a ball of fire. There is no need to put a person through pain and agony (Franklin 412). Based on the new technology available, weapons of today have become more advanced than in the past which could allow Franklin’s vision to become a reality. Television and the internet influence our opinions. Franklin is determined to influence Americans that today’s wars are more graphic with factual, horrifying, and serious images of current technologies uses. Described by Franklin, “One of the most influential and enduring single images from the Vietnam War-certainly the most contested-exploded into the consciousness of millions of Americans in February 1968 when they actually watched, within the comfort of their own homes, as the chief of the Saigon national police executed a manacled NLF prisoner” (407). What is different about the painting of “Guernica” compared to Franklin’s article is that a person viewing the painting can take its interpretation completely different from what it was intended to be. Franklin on the other hand is determined to inform people through facts. His attitude towards informing people is in a serious horrifying approach. Franklin has to be dramatic and graphic for a person to visualize how serious modern technology is affecting the world and not just Americans. No one knows how modern technology is going to affect a person until it is used in an experiment. Franklin informs his readers that modern technology has helped our country grow and succeed. Also, at the same time it shows his readers, such as, parents, students, and politicians that the use of modern technology at times needs to be less graphic and informative. Parents don’t want their children watching an execution on the news. Students and politicians on the other hand could learn from watching an execution. The use of modern technology has a time and a place to be used, for example, a video of the nuclear bomb being used on Japan after the attack on Pearl Harbor. This would be a good lesson to teach Americans but the timing would need to be right as to not do more harm than good. Piccaso’s painting and Franklin’s article are similar in the way of showing the evolution of war through modern technology. In the “Guernica” painting, Piccaso uses a light bulb within an eye to inform people that modern technology is being used to end the fight quicker with a defeat and a win and that war will not change, only technology. In Franklin’s article, he enlightens the reader with facts of how modern technology has and is being used in wars. In the painting, Piccaso shows a time line of the war from right to left; to show people that we will destroy ourselves through modern technology. Franklin only tells his readers only facts of what has happened and does not try to inform his readers of facts that have not happened yet. Both the painting and the article have been created to influence people by interpreting the affects of war by the use of modern technology. The article and the painting both describe wars changing through modern technology. Franklin’s purpose and claim is to inform Americans that wars change through modern technology. Logos is used as evidence to show Americans that people use modern technology as an avenue to access information about wars faster. People need modern technology to feel more connected with wars. Today’s wars are impacted by the hypnotism of modern technology. Television and the internet influence our opinions. No one knows how modern technology is going to affect a person until it is used in an experiment. Piccaso’s painting and Franklin’s article are similar in the way of showing the evolution of war through modern technology. We can only change if we want to change. Works Cited Franklin, Bruce. “From Realism to Virtual Reality: Images of America’s Wars.” The Arlington Reader. Eds. Lynn Z. Bloom and Louise Z. Smith. 2nd ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2008, 402-413. Print. Piccaso, Pablo. Guernica. 1937. Treasures of the World. Web. 07 Oct. 2010.