Sarapen (![[personal profile]](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small} deleonjh) wrote in ![[community profile]](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small} scans_daily, |
As I recall, whenever I watched GI Joe I'd spend the entire episode shouting for Snake Eyes to appear. I'd only be satisfied whenever he was on screen. Seriously, I can't remember the plot of a single episode. I even recently watched an episode of the new GI Joe and ended up reiterating my childhood habits.
Anyway, when viewed retrospectively it's ridiculous how gung ho the 80s was. You could pretty much sum up American pop culture in the 1980s by watching the scene in Predator where the heavily-armed and musclebound commandos level a jungle in fear and paranoia. It's almost like the US was overcompensating for having a small penis. That or something that starts with V and ends with War (or as the other side calls it, the American War).
Seriously, the idea that civilians betray the country by refusing to support the military 110% clearly comes from the US military's sense of betrayal following the Vietnam War. The extreme view holds that the war could have been won had those civvies just kept supporting the war. I believe this is snarkily referred to as the Green Lantern theory of geopolitics: the view that anything in the world can be solved by applying military force as long as you have the willpower to keep it up.
It's both odd and unsurprising that Cobra should be shown to be so high-tech for a terrorist force. Anyone with a passing familiarity with real life asymmetrical warfare (not just the 21st century kind, any kind at all) would know that a centralized command would be pure lunacy for the terrorists/guerillas/what-have-you. But once you remember that the comic book is a fantasy then all is well. After all, you get an enemy who stands up and fights instead of cravenly maximizing their use of force. No wonder WWII movies got a sudden boost after 9/11.
Anyway, I don't mean to lessen your realization of American complicity in all kinds of horrible shit but it's almost painful for us non-Americans how shocking that realization should be. Indeed, American perpetuation of horrible shit is as old as the US itself. (Yes, every country does it. So what?)
Damn, I can't believe I wrote so much. I guess I really do need to start my blog again, if I'd been writing for it I would have brought up utopianism and Walter Benjamin and whatnot.
Anyway, when viewed retrospectively it's ridiculous how gung ho the 80s was. You could pretty much sum up American pop culture in the 1980s by watching the scene in Predator where the heavily-armed and musclebound commandos level a jungle in fear and paranoia. It's almost like the US was overcompensating for having a small penis. That or something that starts with V and ends with War (or as the other side calls it, the American War).
Seriously, the idea that civilians betray the country by refusing to support the military 110% clearly comes from the US military's sense of betrayal following the Vietnam War. The extreme view holds that the war could have been won had those civvies just kept supporting the war. I believe this is snarkily referred to as the Green Lantern theory of geopolitics: the view that anything in the world can be solved by applying military force as long as you have the willpower to keep it up.
It's both odd and unsurprising that Cobra should be shown to be so high-tech for a terrorist force. Anyone with a passing familiarity with real life asymmetrical warfare (not just the 21st century kind, any kind at all) would know that a centralized command would be pure lunacy for the terrorists/guerillas/what-have-you. But once you remember that the comic book is a fantasy then all is well. After all, you get an enemy who stands up and fights instead of cravenly maximizing their use of force. No wonder WWII movies got a sudden boost after 9/11.
Anyway, I don't mean to lessen your realization of American complicity in all kinds of horrible shit but it's almost painful for us non-Americans how shocking that realization should be. Indeed, American perpetuation of horrible shit is as old as the US itself. (Yes, every country does it. So what?)
Damn, I can't believe I wrote so much. I guess I really do need to start my blog again, if I'd been writing for it I would have brought up utopianism and Walter Benjamin and whatnot.
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