So, I keep thinking of 'Top Gun'... (Professor: Beware New Militarism) [View All]

[Hissyspit]

So, I keep thinking of 'Top Gun.' 1988 - the American public flocked to the first overtly PRO-war movie in two decades or so (even the WWII-nostalgiafests had carried sincere or token anti-war subtexts/themes.)

'Top Gun' is romanticized adrenalized MILTARIZED glory-fantasy. Everyone in it is handsome and pristine and formulaic. And, especially significant, the protagonist is called upon to fight a NAMELESS enemy, NEVER-SEEN, one against which we, the U.S., are VICTORIOUS! It doesn't matter who the enemy is. Or even why we are fighting them! I went to this movie at the time (at the dollar theatre) and thought:

"WTF? What is happening here?" I hadn't seen anything like that for decades.

Yes, I've been thinking about 'Top Gun' the last few years. Tom Cruise! The singing of Phil Spector-Wall of Sound Righteous Brothers love song in a bar! Fast Fighter Jets! Fast Motorcycles! Sweaty Sex! Faceless/Nameless Enemies! Plot devices.

So, Thursday night I'm listening to On Point, WBUR's NPR radio show. Here is West Point graduate and Vietnam veteran Andrew Bacevich discussing the new American militarism warning that "America -- from the White House right down to popular culture -- has fallen dangerously in love with the idea of military might. It has become, he says, a country seduced by war. In his new book, The New American Militarism, the soldier-scholar describes it as a dangerous new American union of militarism and utopian ideology. A union, he says, that is turning the United States into a nation that believes, unquestioningly, in the primacy of armed power."

The President is 'OUR COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF,' we say, Bacevich points out, not the commander-in-chief of the armed forces among the many other identities/roles/jobs. Listen to the interview here.

And then Bacevich mentions 'Top Gun!' Gives it as example of the change in the zeitgeist, the collective U.S. cultural attitude, since the 60s, don't remember his exact words - and that's pretty much why I've been thinking of it the past few years. It was pointing to this NEW blind militarism of the new century. (He didn't mention the Nameless/Faceless Enemy aspect, that's still mine!)

Much more to it than just my 'Top Gun' connection, though. Worth a listen. (Sorry I don't have a transcript.)