Coming Soon: Militainment, Inc.

In about a month, I expect to have a finished version of a video documentary I'm making regarding the convergence of war and popular culture. I'm calling it "Militainment, Inc." It's quite a big solo project, consisting of perhaps 300 television clips and voiceover, music, etc. The video will be about 90 minutes, divided up into nine, ten minute sections, which will facilitate classroom use.

1. The War Movie. This looks at the TV war as a spectacle meant for a cinematic-like consumption. The re-emergence of explicit cooperation between Hollywood and the Pentagon. The manufacture of "instant history" in a series of made for TV events, such as Shock and Awe, the Saddam Statue felling, and the Jessica Lynch story as well as the war movie soundtrack. Also looks at the manufacture of the enemy, especially Saddam Hussein, and the time tested methods of demonization.

2. The Clean War. Briefly examines the history of war presentation since Vietnam, the "Vietnam Syndrome" and attempts to minimize the appearance of human destruction. Recurring patterns by which the clean war appears on television during the 2003 invasion. The Dehumanization of Destruction. Contradictions of the clean war, and how war is produced as a consumable event.

3. Technofetishism. Examines the worship of weapons as a mode for consuming militainment. "Seeing through" weapons and the visual positioning of the viewer. The aestheticizing of weapons. Depicting high tech weapons as morally superior to low tech.

4. Reality TV. Looks at the history of embedded reporting and its emergence from a Pentagon/ABC experiment in reality TV called "Profiles from the Front Line." Also goes through a number of other reality TV events from 2000-2005. Explores the significance of reality TV as a metaphor for embedded reporting.

5. Spectator Sports. Explores the convergence of sports (extreme sports and traditional sports) in war discourse. Sports metaphors in war news coverage. The appearance of military themes and programs surrounding sporting events such as the Super Bowl. The "extreme sports" motif in the Army of One recruitment campaign.

6. Toys. Looks at the War Movie as it is expressed in toys, both for children and adults. The explosion in popularity of toys taking themes directly from television.

7. The Video Game War. Investigates the medium of the video game and its convergence with television news, military recruiting, and real world events. Explores the ways in which TV news resembles real time play as well as the ways that video games are taking on the themes, style, and content of 24 hour news channels - as well as the games like Kuma/War that claim they are a news service. Also examines the military's use of the America's Army game for recruitment.

8. Time Crunch. Examines the integration of homefront and battlefield as an overall theory of militarism (with reality TV and video games as exemplars). The history of "real time" coverage is discussed along with its relationship to democratic deliberation. This section examines the rhetorics of time - especially the appearance of the countdown clock in the 2003 Iraq invasion - as a way of understanding the implications of "real time" coverage. It is argued here that the obsessive focus on time forecloses the possibility for democratic deliberation.

9. The Future of Democracy. Argues that the role of the citizen is policed and channeled. Dissent is often criminalized or portrayed as a social disease to be quarantined. Strict definitions for who can speak about war are enforced (no one but administrative officials or soldiers). Democratic deliberation is replaced by integration into the spectacles of militainment. Examines strategies for reclaiming a critical citizenship.

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So watch for it. I will be posting links for samples of the film soon. I have about half the video in rough cut form now. Polished vignettes are forthcoming. Colleagues and I plan to seek distribution through a few major outlets that do critical media videos, and the film will probably go out to a couple of festivals. If you have ideas for distribution, let me know. This is my first foray into this genre. We are looking to start a critical media center here at UGA to help facilitate this kind of critical exploration.

The Kingdom of Sunshine

I'm here in Sioux Falls, SD at a coffee shop called Black Sheep listening to my lovely Kate Morrissey do a little show (see link on right). We are making our way across the U.S. to Palo Alto, CA for the summer to teach at a Stanford program for gifted high schoolers. Sioux Falls is a very cosmopolitan town. The Ellis Island of the Midwest. A big Ethiopian population, and good Ethiopian food.

Here's something good we can do. The U.S. is propping up a murderous dictatorial regime in Ethiopia and has been giving the dictator, Meles Zenawi, over a billion dollars a year in military aid since he came to power fourteen years ago. He is the biggest recipient of U.S. military aid in the Sub-Sahara. The house is now in the process of reviewing this "aid" as part of HR 4423. This nascent bill needs your support. Urge your congressperson to cosponsor this bill. And sign this petition. You can read about the human rights violations that are being committed with your US tax dollar, but here's a little bit from the Human Rights Watch Ethiopia overview page.

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Key International Actors
Ethiopia is considered an essential partner of the United States in its "war on terrorism," and Washington has generally been unwilling to apply meaningful pressure on the Ethiopian government over its human rights record. The U.S. suspects Islamic extremist groups are hiding in bordering areas of Somalia, and sometimes inside Ethiopia itself. The U.S. military, operating primarily out of a base in Djibouti, cooperates closely with the Ethiopian armed forces in counterterrorism efforts and capacity building work. The United States is also the largest donor of bilateral aid in Ethiopia.

Political Repression
Government officials and security forces in much of Ethiopia make routine use of various forms of human rights abuse to deter and punish dissent. For more than a decade, authorities in the country’s vast Oromia region have used exaggerated concerns about armed insurgency and “terrorism” to justify the torture, imprisonment and sustained harassment of their critics and even ordinary citizens. Student protests in 2004 at Addis Ababa University and in secondary schools throughout Oromia led to the arrest of hundreds of students, many of whom were mistreated while in custody. Ever since the protests and throughout 2005, regional officials in Oromia have gone to oppressive lengths to monitor and control the speech and conduct of students and teachers alike.

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Of course, the Bush administration rhetoric about aiding democratic movements in the world is nonsense. The empire much prefers a dictator like Zenawi to true democratic self rule. Ethiopia is virgin territory for the mining, and Zenawi is happy to enrich his regime and Western transnational companies. All he asks in return is military aid so that those who think that the Ethiopian people should claim their own wealth can be terrorized into submission. Last time they checked with an election, in 2005, this was about 90% of the population. Zenawi did not like this and decided to chase the independent election overseers out of the country and burn all the ballots. Nearly the entire print, radio, and television media apparatus was thrown in jail along with the winning candidates. Not very democratic, one would think. Yet, for the U.S., Ethiopia remains a vital ally in the war on terror. Hmmm.