Pathetic Propaganda

This past weekend I went to the theater to see the newest Batman movie, The Dark Knight. The movie was pretty good, very dark but good. The Joker was played by the late Heath Ledger and I must say he did a great job of getting across the psychosis and madness of the character without going all campy. One metaphor I took from the movie is the fact that government could not solve the problems plaguing the city. It took a private entity, The Batman, to get the job done.

This blog post isn’t about the movie or my weekend but rather something I saw before the movie that I just had to comment on. Call me jaded or cynical but I am always looking for the hidden meaning/agenda behind advertisements and messages in general; it can be quite interesting once you get past the high gloss façade. Most of the time these messages are very obvious and other times, more sinister.

During the preview roll an advertisement came on for the National Guard in the form of a Kid Rock song, co-starting Dale Earnhardt Jr. The song is called Warrior and can be found on Youtube. What follows is my unapologetic critique.

I must admit that I don’t really get into Kid Rock’s music though I respect him as a successful musician. That being said, this video is exceptionally bad. It has all the trappings of manufactured creativity: poor lyrics and cadence, clichéd music, over the top scenes of Guardsmen in action and it sounds just like a bunch of other Kid Rock songs.

Factor in Dale Jr. driving around in a car and your left is one big WTF type moment as you sit there waiting for the movie to begin. The word jingoism is redefined by this piece of unabashed propaganda. Even the lyrics are a slap in the face:

“So don’t tell me who’s wrong and right
When liberty starts slipping away
And if you ain’t gonna fight
Get out of the way”

Ok so instead of recognizing the problem and solving it lets just load up some guns and kill brown people. Oh and if you don’t want help me reap the souls of foreigners then kindly step aside.

Here is a knock-knock joke for Kid Rock.

Knock-Knock

Who’s there?

The Government(State) and we are here to take your liberties. Due to the dangerous times it is best if we collect your liberties and put them in a secret location for safe keeping.  Rest assured they will be kept in great condition while not in use…

Oh and we are going to bill you for this service.

More lyrics:

“’Cause freedom ain’t so free
When you breathe red, white and blue”

Actually the natural and relaxed state of being is free. It requires applied force to limit freedom. Just as well the terrorists are not enforcing martial law over trifles.  Or using Tasers to kill people or torture people.

Clearly the National Guard is pulling out all the stops in an attempt to meet recruiting goals. I am sure a lengthy, unpopular and unconstitutional war is not helping bring in the numbers. Well if this likely overpriced pathetic piece of propaganda does not work they can always lower their standards again.


JJ is a former member of the Army National Guard.


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