07-02-2014, 04:02 AM
Richard's blog should be read frequently:
http://lookingglass.blog.co.uk/2014/02/0...-17708254/
It's nothing new, pseudo patriotic incursions into sporting events. But for much of American history it appears to have been mild and relatively inoffensive. Opening games with the Star-Spangled Banner had the feel of tradition and ritual rather than belligerent call-to-arms.
Then came the event that the Project for a New American Century presciently described as a new Pearl Harbor,' and the proclamation in mass media and from slack-jawed reactionaries that "everything has changed."
The willingness of otherwise at least marginally sentient beings to abandon reflective thought was starkly illustrated in the days after September 11, 2001. Little American flag replicas sprouted on the lapels of politicians and television broadcasters, as though this pathetic symbol of national identification was a worthy response to mass bloodshed.
New national spy agencies were created to save us from the invisible enemy. The degree of unspecific danger and appropriate, sanctioned level of alarm was color-coded. National leaders told us to buy duct tape. George Bush advised Americans to go shopping.
The inane and long-dormant Pledge of Allegiance was dragged into public forums. Baseball games fielded immense American flags, free seats for camouflaged soldiers, military flyovers, enhanced security, and 7th inning patriotic observance for those who had forgotten the message over the previous couple of hours.
I stopped watching pro football games about thirty years ago, with only an occasional lapse. For me, the balletic quality of the sport had been overwhelmed by its brutality and, after San Francisco's fascinating Bill Walsh/Joe Montana days were over and the evil Dallas Cowboys were defeated, I found other things to do on Sunday afternoons in autumn.
I didn't watch this Super Bowl game, either, nor its endless preliminaries, post-game redundancies, nor the manipulative commercial advertisements designed to convince me that Budweiser is a lover of cute animals, Pepsi is fine with gays, and Chevy trucks will make my penis expand to John Dillinger dimensions.
Apparently, the United States military has assumed a major role in the festivities. The same people who deployed total electronic surveillance on every American unleashed multiple displays of propaganda aimed at recruiting impressionable or stupid kids.
The game featured the Armed Forces Color Guard, a military chorus on the National Anthem, an army flyover with rotary-wing aircraft,' and special greetings to every bunch of soldiers the cameras could find.
"We're providing military assets to the Super Bowl as part of the department's community relations effort," said Pentagon flack, Col. Steve Warren. "It has potential recruiting benefits and it helps connect our military to America."
That's some chilling shit, isn't it?
How is it that America's army, evidently without challenge from anyone, "provides military assets (for the purpose of ) community relations"? Is that the task of the military? My tax money paid for community relations?
And what does this guy mean by "connect(ing) our military to America"? I wasn't aware that any connecting' needed to take place. Actually, I'm already connected to the military in this country far more often and in far more depth than I'd like. It's reading these keystrokes, for fuck's sake.
It may be that no single public event so characterizes America now than the Super Bowl. This is where the nastiest side of public power climbs aboard the spectacle of popular violence. Corporate-controlled, taxpayer-subsidized infomercial for war and obedience.
I'm sorry to keep writing columns like this. I so much would rather write about other sorts of things. Maybe tomorrow.
If you are among the legion who have yet to read my novel, News From A Parallel World,' you can find it, along with 14 reviews, on Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/News-From-A-Parall...oduct_top.
http://lookingglass.blog.co.uk/2014/02/0...-17708254/
Connecting To America
by RAZFX [SUP]Pro[/SUP] @ 2014-02-04 07:20:59It's nothing new, pseudo patriotic incursions into sporting events. But for much of American history it appears to have been mild and relatively inoffensive. Opening games with the Star-Spangled Banner had the feel of tradition and ritual rather than belligerent call-to-arms.
Then came the event that the Project for a New American Century presciently described as a new Pearl Harbor,' and the proclamation in mass media and from slack-jawed reactionaries that "everything has changed."
The willingness of otherwise at least marginally sentient beings to abandon reflective thought was starkly illustrated in the days after September 11, 2001. Little American flag replicas sprouted on the lapels of politicians and television broadcasters, as though this pathetic symbol of national identification was a worthy response to mass bloodshed.
New national spy agencies were created to save us from the invisible enemy. The degree of unspecific danger and appropriate, sanctioned level of alarm was color-coded. National leaders told us to buy duct tape. George Bush advised Americans to go shopping.
The inane and long-dormant Pledge of Allegiance was dragged into public forums. Baseball games fielded immense American flags, free seats for camouflaged soldiers, military flyovers, enhanced security, and 7th inning patriotic observance for those who had forgotten the message over the previous couple of hours.
I stopped watching pro football games about thirty years ago, with only an occasional lapse. For me, the balletic quality of the sport had been overwhelmed by its brutality and, after San Francisco's fascinating Bill Walsh/Joe Montana days were over and the evil Dallas Cowboys were defeated, I found other things to do on Sunday afternoons in autumn.
I didn't watch this Super Bowl game, either, nor its endless preliminaries, post-game redundancies, nor the manipulative commercial advertisements designed to convince me that Budweiser is a lover of cute animals, Pepsi is fine with gays, and Chevy trucks will make my penis expand to John Dillinger dimensions.
Apparently, the United States military has assumed a major role in the festivities. The same people who deployed total electronic surveillance on every American unleashed multiple displays of propaganda aimed at recruiting impressionable or stupid kids.
The game featured the Armed Forces Color Guard, a military chorus on the National Anthem, an army flyover with rotary-wing aircraft,' and special greetings to every bunch of soldiers the cameras could find.
"We're providing military assets to the Super Bowl as part of the department's community relations effort," said Pentagon flack, Col. Steve Warren. "It has potential recruiting benefits and it helps connect our military to America."
That's some chilling shit, isn't it?
How is it that America's army, evidently without challenge from anyone, "provides military assets (for the purpose of ) community relations"? Is that the task of the military? My tax money paid for community relations?
And what does this guy mean by "connect(ing) our military to America"? I wasn't aware that any connecting' needed to take place. Actually, I'm already connected to the military in this country far more often and in far more depth than I'd like. It's reading these keystrokes, for fuck's sake.
It may be that no single public event so characterizes America now than the Super Bowl. This is where the nastiest side of public power climbs aboard the spectacle of popular violence. Corporate-controlled, taxpayer-subsidized infomercial for war and obedience.
I'm sorry to keep writing columns like this. I so much would rather write about other sorts of things. Maybe tomorrow.
If you are among the legion who have yet to read my novel, News From A Parallel World,' you can find it, along with 14 reviews, on Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/News-From-A-Parall...oduct_top.