I did not grow up on TV. We didn't have one until I was 18 years old. I read books instead. Believe me, it makes a difference.

But yes, you are quite right about the effectiveness of propaganda. The USA is a nation in which people are brought up to admire warmaking and the implements of war and to expect to engage in further wars in the near future. It's an extremely aggressive, expansionist country. The contrast to Canadian culture in this sense could hardly be more noticeable, Canada being a country in which nobody ever expects to go to war...and to do so is seen as only the last possible resort until the most extraordinary and unusual circumstances. In the USA war is like football. You can expect another season to start up any time soon.

To put it another way: In Canada people see the moral job of our society to be to police itself. We look inward at improving conditions here. In the USA people see the moral job of the society to be to police the World! The USA looks outward. The World in general does not consider the USA to be morally equipped to lecture and police other nations, needless to say... ;-)