Slow Descent Into Mindless Adoration…
Happy Martin Luther King Day! The biggest grossing film of all time over the MLK four day weekend was “American Sniper” grossing 105.3 million dollars, beating out the previous title holder, “Avatar”. Almost fifty years after MLK was murdered, our heroes have morphed from MLK to Chris Kyle and Hollywood is no longer making “Platoons” and “Full Metal Jackets”, but “Lone Survivors” and “American Snipers”. Seth Rogen drew a parallel between the American sniper, Kyle, and the hero worship of the Nazi sniper in “Inglorious Basterds”. Seth went on to clarify that he liked the movie, but it did remind him of the sniper in Quentin Tarantino’s film, ironically and completely missing his own point!
I guess this is the curse of living long enough to witness the slow descent into mindless adoration and blind faith in all things authoritarian. My father and his contemporaries fought this mindless blind faith in Europe and Asia from 1940 to 1945. They returned home heroes and beneficiaries of the democracy they preserved from those hell bent on subjugation and tyranny by military rule. Are the movie goers simply unaware the “entertainment” they paid for is reinforcing an empire expanding, unsustainable government policy backed by our corporate congress to the delight of big finance, big oil and weapons contractors?
A couple of decades ago this would have sounded like some loony conspiracy theory, but sadly it is our new reality. I bore myself repeating the obvious. Last one out, turn off the lights and tell that fat lady to stop singing, nobody is listening.
Alex Symington
Key West
Alex, just think how easy it is to glorify these idiotic, mindless military adventures when almost none of us have to take part in them, including Clint Eastwood. I remember watching a promo for this film on TV. The sniper is in his lair sizing up his next victim, an Iraqi woman who is supposedly carrying a weapon and is a dangerous enemy. And I thought, regardless of her motivations or goals to kill Americans (which existed, I suppose), that this was her land, her country, her place, and somehow this American soldier 10,000 miles from his home carrying out this war against her and her people, was supposed to arouse my sympathy, and she was supposed to be the bad person. I’d like to ask Eastwood just what right this soldier had to be there in her country trying to shoot her? Thanks Alex, PCM
One bit of irony I forgot to mention is MLK was murdered by a sniper who had a large fan base amongst the cretin white supremacist crowd.
ww2 was instigated by England and Churchill at the behest of the Bank of England and their owners, the Rothschild’s. it had nothing to do with defending freedom and democracy. that “fighting for freedom and democracy” by the way, was first brought to us by that master of propaganda, Bernays, as a means to popularize US participation in WW1, and has been used ever since. MLK’s assassination was deemed as a conspiracy between local, state and the federal government through a civil trial brought by his family. white supremacy, racism, cretinism, all played no part.
remember boys, facts are your friends.
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/killing_ragheads_for_jesus_20150125