Imperialism and its real victims
August 2nd, 2024
After writing and thinking about imperialism yesterday, I also thought for a while about anti-imperialism. That led me to think about wars, and their impact (among other things like human lives) on culture, which might be a little telling how my priorities are set… That in turn led me to think about the anti-war movement from the Vietnam War era. And that led me to think about the holy trifecta of anti-war movies set in Vietnam — “The Deer Hunter”, “Apocalypse Now”, and “Platoon”. Of course, there are so many more, but those three are the pinnacle of both the filmcraft and the explicit message. And that led me to think about anti-war music from the ’60s and '70s (and beyond) — and here there is an amazing trove of songwriting craft of the highest level — from Dylan and Ochs to Alice in Chains and Rage Against the Machine.
All that thinking (and listening to that anti-war music) led me to a startling and disturbing realization: the real victims of the imperialistic wars are the soldiers perpetuating those wars. Mostly young American men. Only they are portrayed in those movies and songs and then creatively and pathetically presented as victims. As unwilling pawns in a game where they are expected to do dirty work by killing and raping and subduing in body and spirit those uppity orientals. That is what I take from the anti-war movement in the widely understood culture of the Western World. The natives, those being killed en masse by machine guns and napalm, are just a brown mass without names, or any stories, or any dreams, or any indefinable character traits. They have to die, so those doing the killing can feel sorry for themselves or build their personality on the victimhood. Theirs. Not those who they killed.
That is disgusting. And I feel disgusted now — by the deep reach of cultural imperialism that shaped countless millions of minds, and by myself as well. I had no idea how my mind was disfigured by the subtle imperialistic propaganda under the cover of art — art made by willing well-meaning pawns of the generational brainwashing of the Western world.
