The Body Politic

22 March 03

"Let me ask you one question. Is your money that good?" -Bob Dylan

My great, but Imperialist* nation is at war again. And it's the hottest reality TV program ever conceived!

I find it interesting that protestors in Chicago marched on the home of the Leo Burnett ad exec responsible for the new "Army of One" campaign. The people on the street, or in the streets as is the case here, know how false that message is and they're taking matters into their own hands. In "Masters of War," Bob Dylan attempted to put a face on the enemy next door. Today, in this time of instant and often wireless communication, we not only have the face, we have all the digits that go with that face and the ability to direct an activist movement at this "target" within hours, if not minutes. Welcome to the hyperlinked Internet Age, an age of honesty and sharing for the common good.

I've got CNN on in the other room and from time to time I feel the need to see what they are entertaining the viewers with. Explosions! Explosions make for great TV, as Hollywood continues to prove. The other thing CNN, MSNBC, FOX and CNBC are overwhelming the viewer with is jargon, also known as propaganda. I create advertising for a living, so I feel uniquely qualified to comment on the act of creating images (verbal and otherwise) that lead to an agreed upon and desired effect. The military establishment has in its employ people just like me, shapers and creators of content. Here's what they're feeding us, I mean saying:

"The liberation of Iraq has begun."

Ummmm, excuse me for saying so, but a country occupied by a hostile Army is not liberated in any sense. The broadcast media is so deeply embedded--a term they're actually using freely to describe reporters moving in concert with the troops--there is no longer any distinction between the client's P.R. and what we once thought of as News. There can no longer be any doubt whatsoever that the lessons of Vietnam are upon us. Lesson number one: Win! Lesson number two: control the media. Washington knows that dead Americans make for lousy programming. In fact, such a program would have to be cancelled at the first opportunity.

What they call spin inside the beltway, I simply refer to as Marketing 101. Every client wants more sales. That's universal. The Bush administration's equivalent of "wanting more sales" requires that they stimulate the economy, which took a terrible turn for the worse as soon as their hostile takeover of the White House was complete. The reality we Americans must someday face: the oil industry now runs the world. They are longer merely a powerful lobby, they are the Executive Branch of the United States of America. Vice President Cheney was making $20,000,000 a year in "the industry" before heading back to Washington to supposedly serve our collective interests. Give me a break. Give yourself a break. He's serving his interests and the interests of his industry, the oil industry.

Bush and Cheney, I believe, truly believe that the oil industry's interests are America's interests. In a sense they are correct, in that the economy is deeply tied to oil prices and supply. Yet, it saddens me that we have not demanded a more progressive agenda in Washington. This nation needs a new energy policy and a new administration, now. Not in 2004. Now! That's why I voted to impeach the imposters on the first day of their new war. You can do so as well, with a quick visit to VoteToImpeach.org.

The top layer communication is liberation of an oppressed people. Every conquerer in history has uttered similar sentiments. The underlying objective is, as always, purely economic. I for one, would be more sympathetic to an honest appeal. "Let us have this war and we will drive gas prices down and the stock market up." Hell, what blue-blooded American wouldn't go for that? That has meaning on a personal, Joe Sixpack-type level. Joe Sixpack could give a shit about the Iraqi people. The Bush Administration could give a shit about the Iraqi people. Tell the truth! The world is too smart and too wired today to not tell the truth. Now, more than ever, the truth will set us free.



*Here's a list of U.S. military "interventions" in my lifetime: Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Grenada, Panama, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Boliva, Columbia, Chile, Haiti, Lebanon, Libya, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, Serbia, Bosnia, and Iraq again. I'm 37.

©2003 David Burn Some rights reserved