Having watched Captain America this weekend, and staying through the end titles and credits, I was struck by the connection between this "superhero" movie and the book I just finished for my NT670 class in Seminary: Colossians Remixed, Subverting the Empire.
The connection is with the relentless "image management" done by empires of all sorts, whether the images are of Tiberius Caesar, Chairman Mao, Uncle Sam, Ronald McDonald, Moammar Quaddafi, presidential candidates, or a cute little white Apple with a bite out of it. Images are a huge part of propaganda (also known as advertising), and they are ubiquitous - placed everywhere in order to drive home a sense of inevitability - you WILL obey/support/purchase whatever the icon represents. In the case of this movie, the empires of Hollywood, the Pentagon, Wall Street and America (TM) overlap. Entertainment, weaponry, business and patriotism blend into a heady cocktail. The book I reference sees Paul's letter to the Colossians as a call to the church to subvert the Roman Empire, and the authors see the church's mission today as something very similar, except the empire du jour is Global Consumerism, led by American Democracy and the internet.
The irony of this particular movie is that it unabashedly sets itself as a period piece smack in the middle of the WWII era, where this same heady cocktail of patriotism, weaponry, business and entertainment was also mixed and served widely. It winks at itself in the mirror during the end credits, which use a montage of faux-WWII patriotic poster art as visuals underneath the song "Star Spangled Man" (a Hollywood production number during the movie proper, complete with leggy chorus girls.)
It has since spawned a whole series of neo-wartime propaganda posters by contemporary artists who are apparently getting into the nostalgia theme.
Of course they pay homage to the real thing, in both style and content:
And then there's the crazy updated versions of these posters set in the modern era - WWIII patriotic propaganda. Pretty funny. :)
There is a theme to these things. Or rather, several themes all designed to accomplish the same thing: 1) illustrate our societal greatness and the glory of our way of life, 2) denigrate, demonize and dehumanize our enemies, and 3) call us to show resolve, sacrifice, and generally support the war effort.
The sobering thing is... every empire does it, whether it's our side or theirs. Power of an imperial nature seeks to control the populace through winning over hearts and minds (and if necessary, using incentives, peer pressure, or if all else fails, regulation, the force of law). If it wasn't for the language and colors of the flags, it would be hard to tell whose propaganda is whose.
Okay, so much for the positive, heart-warming images, inspiring civic pride. Here's part two: the ugly side. Our enemy must be portrayed as evil or sub-human ... so that we can kill him with no pesky pangs of conscience. This strategy still works today, with the war on terror, except its the Crusaders vs. the Jihadists, or Democracy vs. Dictatorship. We still burn each others flags.
So have you figured out who is evil and sub-human, yet? The real answer is... we all are, when we give support to this stuff. And yet, empire calls us to do our part, no matter who's empire we're presently serving... or opposing.
No comments:
Post a Comment