Analysis of "Mein Kampf" by David Lerner

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David Lerner seeks to warn us of the ever increasing loss of control in our lives caused by external forces such as governments and corporations. He does so in his poem ‘Mein Kampf’, through the use of metaphor, allusion, simile, and hyperbole. It can also be said that Lerner wants us, the reader, to move away from the Gary Snyder aspects of poetry and move to a more realistic and rational manner of thinking. The main aim of advertising is to make us forgo our common sense and rationality, and believe whatever companies are telling us. Most of us are aware of this about advertising and yet we still get suckered in to their effects. Propaganda is in many ways similar to advertising, the main effect is to cause us to be less rational (Bazerman, 106). The media show us two separate images and indirectly link them together, a stereotypical example of this would be showing an image of a Muslim, and then immediately switching to an image of an explosion, or battlefield. David Lerner utilizes metaphor when he claims, “they’re selling radioactive charm bracelets and breakfast cereals that lower your IQ by 50 points per mouthful” (Lerner 86-88). The charm bracelets and cereals are metaphors for the propaganda being fed to us through the different mediums such as social media and television. We can also speculate that the, “breakfast cereals that lower your IQ by 50 points per mouthful” (Lerner 88) are another metaphor as to how the consumerism keeps us ignorant and increases our apathy for what’s actually happening in the world. Lerner employs allusion in order to show us the corruption which some believe is widespread in our government. This starts with the belief that our government is actually run by big businesses which want to achieve their own goals. They also believe the government wants to achieve its own goals. The corporations place their own people in seats of
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