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Description
After the elimination of the Military Draft, the US Military has since faced a delicate problem: how to make young people of a suitable and impressionable age want to sign up? They did it through a slick and continuous advertising program that especially seems to be specifically focused upon ... the United States Marine Corps.
The cold realities of war are stripped away in favor of symbols. “Iwo Jima™” ceases to be a 36-day hell-fight that killed or wounded 26,000 people: it became “a glory-flag on a glory-hill.” (Never mind that three out of the six men depicted never made it off the island ...) Military enlistment became glory and manhood; a shiny glory-sword,™ prominently displayed right there on the side of a passing trailer-truck on the selfsame freeway. The glory-sword, and all of the “glory” that supposedly comes with it, is now just an abstract thing – irresistible in its unattainability – that is: “earned, never given.™”
Yes, in all of this appealing imagery, there is no pain. There is no sacrifice. There is no brutality. Especially, there is no bloodshed. Even “Semper Fi™” seems to be less than “something to die for,” because this entire too-slick ad campaign seems somehow to overlook the fact that you might actually die – or worse. (Or ... ugh ... “much, MUCH worse ...”)
It is ... all ... “so goddamned CLEAN.”
As every warrior comes soon-enough to know, this is not Reality.
Furthermore, the campaign shamelessly targets the poor, the disadvantaged: the people for whom “dress blues” might be nicer clothes than their families could ever have afforded to give them. They are promised a future with meaning ... not a future of maiming or death. They are especially vulnerable. And so, they are the ones especially exploited.
This song, then, is a protest. N-O-T against those who have honorably served in the military (thank you ...), but, rather, against the people who have commercialized it, and who, in so doing, have sought to reduce it to the contents of “a billboard in the rain.” This song is a protest against those who have trivialized the sometimes-mortal sacrifices of others ... and of their families and survivors ... by blatantly suggesting that sacrifice is somehow not involved. It is a protest against those who daily sell the notion that War consists of a glory-filled symbolic identity, rather than ugly personal hell.
The specific phrase, “Semper Fi,” has been included in this lyric purposely (alternate: “Live or Die”), but with profound respect.
The cold realities of war are stripped away in favor of symbols. “Iwo Jima™” ceases to be a 36-day hell-fight that killed or wounded 26,000 people: it became “a glory-flag on a glory-hill.” (Never mind that three out of the six men depicted never made it off the island ...) Military enlistment became glory and manhood; a shiny glory-sword,™ prominently displayed right there on the side of a passing trailer-truck on the selfsame freeway. The glory-sword, and all of the “glory” that supposedly comes with it, is now just an abstract thing – irresistible in its unattainability – that is: “earned, never given.™”
Yes, in all of this appealing imagery, there is no pain. There is no sacrifice. There is no brutality. Especially, there is no bloodshed. Even “Semper Fi™” seems to be less than “something to die for,” because this entire too-slick ad campaign seems somehow to overlook the fact that you might actually die – or worse. (Or ... ugh ... “much, MUCH worse ...”)
It is ... all ... “so goddamned CLEAN.”
As every warrior comes soon-enough to know, this is not Reality.
Furthermore, the campaign shamelessly targets the poor, the disadvantaged: the people for whom “dress blues” might be nicer clothes than their families could ever have afforded to give them. They are promised a future with meaning ... not a future of maiming or death. They are especially vulnerable. And so, they are the ones especially exploited.
This song, then, is a protest. N-O-T against those who have honorably served in the military (thank you ...), but, rather, against the people who have commercialized it, and who, in so doing, have sought to reduce it to the contents of “a billboard in the rain.” This song is a protest against those who have trivialized the sometimes-mortal sacrifices of others ... and of their families and survivors ... by blatantly suggesting that sacrifice is somehow not involved. It is a protest against those who daily sell the notion that War consists of a glory-filled symbolic identity, rather than ugly personal hell.
The specific phrase, “Semper Fi,” has been included in this lyric purposely (alternate: “Live or Die”), but with profound respect.
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Lyrics
(Copr. ©2016)
Young Men, with White Gloves,
Stand
At Attention,
On a Billboard
By the Freeway
In the Rain.
The Young Men, with the White Gloves
Are Calling
To our Children:
“Come and Join Us.
Have adventures.
Feel no pain.”
... They look so young and strong.
... They look like nothing
... could possibly
... be
...
... wrong.
The Young Men, with the White Gloves
Say, “Come to Iwo Jima!”
“Wave a glory-flag
On a glory-hill
Where bullets
Never fly.”
“Wield your glory-sword,
Very shiny,
To Slay
The Evil Enemy.”
“Follow orders,
Never Questioned.”
“Do your duty.”
“Semper Fi.™”
... But the war
... Just kills them in the night.
... Out in the brutal desert,
... They sometimes die of
...
... fright.
Then the Young Men, with the White Gloves
Stand
At Attention
As another Box,
Flag-draped,
Is buried ’neath the land.
And the Young Men, with their White Gloves
On a billboard
By the freeway ...
Call ..
... to our children ...
Once again.
Young Men, with White Gloves,
Stand
At Attention,
On a Billboard
By the Freeway
In the Rain.
The Young Men, with the White Gloves
Are Calling
To our Children:
“Come and Join Us.
Have adventures.
Feel no pain.”
... They look so young and strong.
... They look like nothing
... could possibly
... be
...
... wrong.
The Young Men, with the White Gloves
Say, “Come to Iwo Jima!”
“Wave a glory-flag
On a glory-hill
Where bullets
Never fly.”
“Wield your glory-sword,
Very shiny,
To Slay
The Evil Enemy.”
“Follow orders,
Never Questioned.”
“Do your duty.”
“Semper Fi.™”
... But the war
... Just kills them in the night.
... Out in the brutal desert,
... They sometimes die of
...
... fright.
Then the Young Men, with the White Gloves
Stand
At Attention
As another Box,
Flag-draped,
Is buried ’neath the land.
And the Young Men, with their White Gloves
On a billboard
By the freeway ...
Call ..
... to our children ...
Once again.
Philip18
A powerful and poignant presentation of your point of view.