Tuesday 12 November 2013

Veteran Make-Over Video - Do Not Be Made a 'Dope' by this Superficial Bullshit


There is a video currently doing the round entitled 'Homeless Veteran Timelapse Transformation' which is being shared almost as much as Russell Brand's BBC 'Spiritual Socialism' Newsnight performance. This video is supposed to make some 'profound' statement - mind you, what that statement makes, is nothing more that superficial pap aimed at getting you to spread an advertisement for the fashion industry. While ignoring the causes of war.

The veteran in the video is still being exploited. These are the kind of 'dopamine' feel good 'share if you care' bullshit things which distract from the evils of war. That being; a destroyed veteran is OK to talk about - but not the war culture of the business classes who send men and women like him into war in the first place. 

A devious sleight of hand which the US government plays upon it population and has done so since the time they abandoned WW1 veterans on the Bowery in Lower Manhattan with a modest service check and pointed them in the direction of O'Malley's Tavern for their rehabilitation. While at the same time, inventing 'Veterans Days' and Hollywood movies such as Born on the Fourth of July. That sleight of hand  being, the Veteran is always 'noble' (chances are they might be, some may also be psychopathic civilian killers and rapists), but ultimately it is the rest of you - and not the war criminals and government - who will take care of them and the mess the politicians and CEOs created. 


The 'Homeless Veteran Timelapse Transformation' video will ultimately only sell more hair products on the back of this mythology, along with more suits and salon treatments to men. Just business. It also passes the burden of responsibility from the war mongers on to you. It also drives home the stereotype that all veterans are all destined to be homeless losers and drunks. Most are not. They return from service and do their best to get on with their lives. You can thank the Rambo movies for this mythology. The ones who are badly damaged by Post Traumatic Stress need real help, not hairstyling!

This is not kindness, this is another form of exploitation. Dopamine-delivering You Tube videos are not preventing the war criminals from their plying trade when you share them. If anything, you are mythologising the culture of war and playing into the hands of the bankers, nationalists and arms dealers. The main issue to constantly focus on is the bankers, politicians arms dealers, corporations who generate war, not the end products like this poor bastard being used to market beauty products.

2 comments:

  1. thank you...

    and then, you have 'economic conscripts' like my relatives, who revile civilians for their lack of discipline & patriotism, and assume that everyone outside the MIC is a thundering chucklehead. these types cannot wait to get back to the base, and their fully subsized lifestyles that the rest of us can only fantasize about (health care, food, shelter, recreational accomodations, etc. all provided by Uncle Sam while the rest of us pound sand at 7 dollar minimum wage with 700 dollar rents.)

    brainwashing--it's what's for breakfast!

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