Whenever we look through a family album of old photographs, most of us ask "Who is this?" not "Who was this?" Photographs are always present tense, and so are all the elements of life the enrich us. This blog considers music, film, books and other communications that call out to me always in the present tense.
The very best reason not to let children watch the World Series
Amid the ads for pickup truck and beer in the Fox telecast of the World Series appears the most chilling warning of our future. It is a new ad for the U.S. Marine Corps entitled “A Nation’s Call.”
The call is siren’s song to your children. Just think of all the 19-year-olds who grew up playing Call of Duty as you watch this – and you should. It is eminently watchable. The production values represent Hollywood at its best.
It is also propaganda for an empire. It depicts an invasion of another country.
The ad opens with great aerial shots of a fleet surging forward, deploying helicopters, jets and landing craft, an amphibious invasion … of who? CGI makes vessels evaporate when not needed – like elements of an Xbox adventure – and the cinematic production values are gripping as the camera soars in a Hollywood-style tracking shot from underwater beneath the landing craft into the air. A quick pan out the aft hatch of a helicopter above the invasion fleet shows a young woman manning the door gun.
We jump-cut to the air, flying among the jets, and a fuselage shot from ta jet in flight captures the ominous launching of a an air-to-ground missile. The town being attacked comes into view in a fairly arid rolling landscape, its building low and flat-roofed. The choppers land, and the heroic Marines deploy. One tosses a handheld drone into the air, reminding kids who like tech toys that the Marines have plenty of toys.
Then, at 0:30, we get a good look at the town.
Welcome to the Middle East. Welcome to the Forever War.
Now we’re on the ground with a platoon, moving forward shoulder-to-shoulder with the courageous Marines, firing automatic weapons as explosions echo around us. I have played Call of Duty. I recognize this. Our platoon makes it to a sand-bagged flat roof as the choppers zoom past. The voice intones … “Battles won.”
The ad does not mention any goal other than winning. It extols a willingness to fight, a willingness to answer the call. The mission, the victims, do not matter. As Shakespeare wrote, the game’s the thing.
Be afraid. You may feel resigned and helpless to stop the Forever War, but your children are the cannon fodder. Turn off the TV.
