Military recruitment ads are getting creepier.
But there are things we can do to help save at least some of our kids.
Every year the wife and I buy a pass at our local theater to see all the films nominated for a best picture Oscar, along with the nominated live and animated shorts. It’s great fun. We’ve been doing it for years now.
This year, each film has been preceded by multiple showings (per film) of a certain creepy advertisement for the National Guard.
Perhaps you’ve seen it. The ad shows a bunch of very young people in various civilian and military scenes while a very noticeably youthful voice narrates.
Before I tell you what I find so creepy, here’s the full text of the voice-over:
“We get how uncertain the future is. We’ve come of age in a complex world, face to face with problems we didn’t create. So, what’s going to happen next? We are. Because our future is the future. The life we have chosen has prepared us for this. So, we’re going to build bridges and hospitals in a day. We’re going to save families from disasters and feed those left in the cold. We’re going to do all this and more because we have an appointment with destiny. We invite you to join us. The next greatest generation is now.”
The first bothersome thing is just how young all these “soldiers” are. This, combined with the lack of older faces in any of the footage. I mean, none. With no adults in the ad, it gave off a creepy Lord of the Flies vibe.
Also creepy is the not-so-subtle generational hatred in the narration: You’ve ruined the world, old people, now we have to come clean it up.
There were also a disturbing number of girls in the ad. Perhaps it’s my age or my “misogyny”, but it really bothers me to see young women playing soldier.
If fighting is what is required, men are “built” for it. War is our historical and evolutional purview. It seems dirty and sad to see a girl all kitted up as an infantryman.
But all that is somewhat normal annoyance. I expect all that. And military recruitment ads are always creepy to me. But what really startled me was that last line, “The next greatest generation is now.”
The term “greatest generation” is used to describe those who fought in World War Two. Is the regime signaling their intent to begin World War Three soon? And to draft our kids to fight it?
I’m having a hard time imagining that the use of that term was accidental. I think they are planting seeds — perhaps even subconsciously.
The narration speaks of the type of “civil duties” one might expect of the National Guard, just helping the citizens of a state when the Governor declares some local emergency.
But remember, National Guard troops have been deployed all over the Middle East in the last three decades in wars undeclared by our Congress.
The narration is a lie. These kids are more likely to be fighting insurgents in some hell-hole than laying sandbags to save a town from flooding or the like.
That’s why what the Defend the Guard activists are doing is so important. They are going around the country and introducing state legislation to “…prohibit a state’s National Guard units from being deployed into active combat without a formal declaration of war by Congress, as provided by the US Constitution.”
Doing God’s work, surely.
We need to end the crony empire that is eating out our nation’s treasure and killing and maiming our youth. This is one way to starve the regime of “resources”.
I strongly urge you to go here and get involved.
Naturally,
Adam
Great post, as always.
While it isn't mention in the post, the military is really struggling to hit their recruitment targets. (Except the Marines.) I suspect that's in no small part due to the "civil duties," as you put it, angle so much of their modern recruitment efforts employ.
There are hundreds if not thousands of organizations that provide people with the opportunity to flex their "civil duties" muscle, and they generally don't come with the same sort of baggage rightfully associated with the U.S. war machine. The military has a unique market advantage; it allows mushy-brained young men an outside chance to kill "bad guys." No church group, NGO, or non-profit can offer that sort of opportunity.
If the military's primary concern was protecting the country (it ain't), it would use this advantage. But instead it's prioritizing pandering to Tumblr sensibilities at the cost of effectiveness. Just like far too many male feminists, it puts a ton of effort into being seen as the good guy, while still doing truly terrible things when nobody is watching.
I can't say I'm all that torn up about the military failing to hoodwink kids The Law deems too young to buy cigarettes into joining their death-cult. I'd just rather they do it while being honest with the public that they bomb twelve times as many hospitals as they construct.