We Deserve Better Propaganda Than This
Friday, September 5th, 2008The other night I went to the movies. Before the show started, they screened an ad for the National Guard, which they have been doing, at this theater, for years now. Some of them have been pretty good. Emotionally affecting. Putting a human face on the people in uniform, and all that.
But this one was different, an absurd stew of some of the clumsiest propaganda to hit the screen since the 1950s. Kid Rock screams a song about being a hero. Dale Earnhardt Jr. races for the finish line. And a Guardsman in the Middle East kicks a soccer ball back to a little boy instead of running him over with a tank.
I think Ronald Reagan scripted that last bit from whatever puffy cloud he’s perched on right now.