As I was reading The Braindead Megaphone by George Saunders I quickly realized that the focus of this essay was not on a real megaphone. The megaphone is being used as a metaphor which could be perceived as may different things. I think one of the most widely recognized things that the megaphone could be is the government or some type of ruling power. In this essay the megaphone is perceived as something that is powerful and in control, capturing people's attention. I feel that this is what the government does. Whether people in society agree with the decisions that the government is making or not, they always find themselves listening to the news or some time of publication where the government is reaching out to the community.
Saunders even makes a connection to the government in this essay. He quickly touches upon the subject of war. In section 4 of this essay Saunders refers to the people as "sitting ducks." He believes that people just sit around and take orders from the megaphone which in this case is the government. Although looking at society, this may seem true, I think that there is a a lot more to it. People see the megaphone as a leader, so we do follow them, but also, we trust them. We follow them because we believe that they are making a decision which will better us. We do not follow because we have nothing better to do or because we do not have enough knowledge to lead ourselves. We are doing what we feel is right. The people that are apart of the government are people that a majority of the community has thought would be best to make decisions for them, therefore we follow their beliefs.
I completely agree with you thinking that the megaphone is the government trying to shove something down our throats because we expect the most powerful people to know the most things. Also, its really hard to go against what everyone is being told because it is basically one's word against a person with a lot of access to people.
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