The Science Fiction of Military Marketing

The rise of video game culture has been criticized by some as encouraging violence. The theory is that the more violent and real-looking the video game is, the more it encourages its players to actually go out and reenact the game's scenes in real life. Of course, there's no scientific evidence to back up this hypothesis -- and as a gamer myself, I find it rather idiotic. I'm sorry -- but me playing Halo doesn't make me more inclined to go out and shoot someone.

However, that's not to say that there's no connection between video games and violence. I think there is -- but it's more subtle. As the authors of Smartbomb suggest, video games don't encourage individuals to be violent as much as they legitimize the broader concept of violence as something normal and acceptable. And that's particularly true when, as I show in my newest newspaper column, the military itself embraces that theory.

During a recent visit to the movie theater, I caught two of the military's most popular and widespread recruitment ads -- and as you can see, they depict war, violence and militarism as just one big and harmless video game:

As you can see, the goal of these ads is to pretend that war isn't violent, causes no casualties -- and especially no American casualties. Indeed, one of the ads insists that the frontlines are entirely unmanned -- an insult to the thousands who have died on those very frontlines.

The message in the ad campaign is no accident. It is -- quite obviously -- calculated by the same military propagandists who were trying to use the media credentialing process to limit war-critical journalists' access to forward areas. And the message is simple: War is not anything to really worry about.

Since the column has come out, I've received the standard load of hate mail insisting that, despite polls showing the public against the Iraq/Afghan wars and supportive of Pentagon budget cuts, Americans love war -- and anyone who says otherwise is a liberal who hates the troops. Here's a taste of one lunatic's letter:

Maybe if education in America were not controlled by liberals trying to brainwash kids with liberal immorality, then we could turn out young people who are not legally dead from the throat up -- that is kids who can actually read, write, speak, think, do math, and reason worth a damn ... Liberals and Democrats believe in peace at any cost, including surrender. The American people do not believe this, regardless of how many boot-licking, apology tours our coward in chief -- I mean the empty suit, Idiot Obama -- goes on.

Again, this is just one of many letters I've received -- and clearly, when it is in response to a column about the obviously dishonest message of these commercials, it tells you that it is nearly impossible to conduct a rational conversation about military issues right now (if ever). Here you have commercials overtly trying to convince kids that violence-by-robot isn't violence, and that enlistment for war means merely getting to play a glorified Xbox. And yet, to even broach the problems of that sales pitch is to be called unAmerican.

I guess that comes with the territory of being a writer -- and the reason I wrote this column is to try (in my own little way) to make these issues available for honest discussion. I think it's particularly important as the military starts relying more on these kinds of sales pitches -- and this kind of impersonal weaponry.

Read the whole column here.

The column relies on grassroots support -- and because of that support, it is getting wider and wider circulation (a big thank you to all who have helped with that). So if you'd like to see my column regularly in your local paper, use this directory to find the contact info for your local editorial page editors. Get get in touch with them and point them to my Creators Syndicate site. Thanks, as always, for your ongoing readership and help contacting local editors. This column couldn't be what it is without your help.

Comments

[acmartin9]

These commercials are F$%*@!#d UP, they target at teenagers, telling them that it is ok to destroy people and things because it’s just a video game and there are no consequences to their actions. Secondly, they are giving the message that is cool to join the military because you can blow stuff up, instead of conveying to them that sometimes you have to defend honorable causes.

[TRYKER]

Thanks David.

[mbaty]

I find those ads to be off-putting and obnoxious. Especially the Kid Rock song. And video game bombers are disturbing--so detached, "exterminate!" It's ghastly.

[Jaywalkker]

The argument against video games causing violent behavior is as stupid as the helicopter moms who got the Wil E. Coyote & Roadrunner cartoons yanked off the air, because they thought kids were dumb enough to think they could jump off a cliff and survive.

As far as an advertising tool it appeals to the youth demographic. Who wouldn't, given the choice, want to work with some of themost sophisticated and modern equipment around? The military needs volunteers and they wont' get it running 30/60 second spots of corpses in a field. I hate the idea of my countrymen(women) and service members dying but the advanced technology and tactics at work has kept casualty numbers at an incredibly low minimum compared to past engagements.

[Rule Of Law]

An engagement is a precursor to marriage.

A War is where people die.

And brainwashing is brainwashing, no matter what you want to call it.

[MajorKong]

Who have we been fighting during the last 30 years?

Grenada, Panama, Iraq, Somalia, Haiti, Serbia , Afghanistan

One of these days I fear we're going to fight with someone who's actually capable of fighting back and we may rediscover what it's like to take significant casualties. I don't look forward to that day.

[TRYKER]

"...and service members dying but the advanced technology and tactics at work has kept casualty numbers at an incredibly low minimum compared to past engagements." Jaywalkker
You make many good points, but the casualness in our country over the Iraqi deaths needs to be noted.
To me, a million Iraqis is not an "incredibly low number" .
Many here have close family or friends with a brain damaged son, or a daughter with no legs and PTSD from a war...built on lies.
If our Military can be used like this, just a game-playing tool for political gain and profiteering, and murder, then actually their advertisements should be banned.
We have to wake up some day.
Acceptance of violence as a "better than it used to be" option hardly commends it.
However "low" you claim as tolerable, war/killing itself is wrong. We should start from there.
Our Pentagon spending $800 Billion a year on deaths "over there" when we need that $800 Billion for services to citizens "over here" is just an example of our failures.
War economy has upended our country...
Our moral base has dissolved.

[Jaywalkker]

I completely agree with all of your points. I don't believe that any war of attrition can be anything but a Pyrrhic victory and as I alluded to earlier, I don't view any death, injury or emotional trauma as "acceptable" only that our current military is equipped to minimize it to its lowest point at any time in our history.

No amount of marketing though, obscures the fact that our military is an organization whose sole purpose is to train, participate, and facilitate armed conflict. Some join because of economic hardships in their geographic region. Some join out of tradition or something to prove to themselves or others. Some join as a stepping stone for higher ed or specific training. Some join to gain citizenship status. But everyone going into the military knows they are ultimately being trained to kill or be killed. I've seen these commercials, our technology is pretty slick, but I still know that war is kill or be killed. Even the non-infantry truck driver is one of the highest percentage casualties for death in insurgent situations.

[Rule Of Law]

Seconded!

[Republicnotademocracy]

Let's see: Otzi the Ice Man, died 5,500 years ago with an arrow in his back. Someday we will find the remains of someone else who died similarly 5,500 years earler, and on and on back in time.
War is in our DNA. It is what makes males male.
Your scribblings will do nothing, sad to say..

[Rule Of Law]

Sadly, you are right. It will take an evolution of the mind on par with the technological advances we've made that make us think we are civilized. We aren't.

[MajorKong]

"War is sweet for those who have not tried it." - Erasmus

[knosiswar]

It's the only way to have a military arm in a for-profit country. You have to have a volunteer army, and you need dissaffected, desensitized youth to accomplish that. David, you would do good to remind your readers of Major General Smedley Butler, his life, and his book, 'War Is A Racket'. So, I ask of you to write about this man and what he had to say and offer. His words will bring a clarity to many of the blind among us.

[mjc]

Last time I looked we HAD a volunteer army with some professionals as guides and leaders. Dissaffected and desensitized youth are the current product of many of our public AND private schools. What we are lacking is sensitized and compassionate government leaders and officiers defending this country, not trying to push our power to the limits of the envelope. That is why the movies, tv shows, internet and games our young people grow up with are so important; the parents should provide the adequate leadership in analyzing those pursuits.

[knosiswar]

sorry you didn't understand my post.

[Rule Of Law]

"...video games don't encourage individuals to be violent as much as they legitimize the broader concept of violence as something normal and acceptable."

And THAT is the point. The same could be said for tv shows like 24.

The object is to desensitize us to violence, torture and suspension of the law--especially suspension of our Bill Of Rights. Then when the next "terrorist" attack occurs--perhaps perpetrated this time by a carefully groomed home grown radical group just to up the ante--the American people will already be accustomed to the idea of military in the streets and ready to give up their hard won freedoms.

Some call those games and shows harmless entertainment. They're not.

[knosiswar]

24 was nothing but a straight brain wash, blood lust, indoctrination series, pretending fiction is fact.

[Rule Of Law]

And yet my progressive friends were all hooked on that show. Tried to explain it as a form of reeducation ala Brave New World, and they'd laugh it off. What go in is what comes out.

[BlackJAC]

You forget that the target recruiting demographic is 18-22 males. Showing them the truth, which tends to involve peeling potatoes in the mess hall of Salaam-al-Baksheesh Air Base in Kharjakistan, doesn't appeal to them.

[Aaror]

The military no longer peels potatoes, instead we pay a private contractor like Haliburton to do it. The only charge two times as much as it would cost to have a soldier do it, while paying a local contractor 20% of their contract value for the actual work so they can pocket the rest. They then get a bonus payment from Al Quida for poisoning/­electrocut­ing/etc. our troops.

[RumiSouth]

I will try to get your column in the Times Daily, but I expect the editors will tell me they already have more than enough liberals on their op-ed page. It's become extremely difficult for them to locate a respectable conservative voice anymore -- and I live in ALABAMA.