Warrior-A Kid Rock Propaganda Film

A few years ago I visited the lovely country of Thailand. It was a harrowing trip jam packed with three near death experiences, a very un-traditional Christmas eve at a club in Bangkok, and a lot of shopping. While there, since I was there a whole month, I went to the movies. Before the flick, in addition to the normal previews, there was a moment where we were all asked to stand for the for the National Anthem. Though it was different and unexpected, I didn't think too much of it until a friend of mine whispered into my ear that if you didn't stand you could be taken to jail. Intense huh?

Well, I never really followed up to find out if that's true or not, but it was one of those many cultural differences I filed away as something that would never happen in the States. Flash forward to last weekend. After the conference, I met up with one of my favorite people on earth, my Dad. We decided to catch a movie and arrived ridiculously early. Really that just meant there was more time to eat popcorn. While we waited there was a movie quiz stuff interspersed with some seemingly innocuous pre-trailer commercials, one of which was a music video from Kid Rock. Well actually it was a little more than a music video, really it was a National Guard propaganda film masquerading as a music video.

So there is Kid Rock: cue the sexy baseline and the electric guitar. And in roll the US tanks across a dusty middle eastern country. Lyrics begin with: "Now don't tell me whose wrong or right when liberty starts slipping away... And if you ain't gonna fight, get out of the way. 'Cause freedom makes us free when you're breathing red white and blue. I'm giving all of myself, how 'bout you? And they call me warrior. They call me Loyalty. They call me ready to provide the need, the help, wherever you need me to be. I'm an American Warrior. Huh! I'm an American Warrior, Citizen Solidier...." And it goes on, all of this is interspersed with images of the National guard blowing up buildings, rescuing a soccer ball from being squashed by a tank, building a damn, racing cars, and I don't know, whatever glamorous patriot crap you might happen to be doing in the National Guard. I had a moment akin to slack jawed amazement. No we don't live in a country where if you sit during the national anthem, you are sent to jail, but apparently we do live in a country that says you aren't a patriot unless you agree with government and immediately enlist in the National Guard.

I mean let's not question whose wrong or right when liberty is at stake, let's just get out the machine guns and blow up some foreigners. Sometimes I feel such a deep shame to call this my country. Oh land of the free, where we are free to be bigoted and ignorant, where we are free to promote mindless propaganda that some poor misguided innocent might end up buying into...but let's talk about the reality....how many soldier have died in this bullshit war? How many innocent Iraqis have died in this bullshit war? So let's talk about patriotism. In one country you could go to jail for not standing for the national anthem, in this country you could die for actually buying into the propaganda of what is now considered patriotism. I implore you to think again. One of our few remaining liberties is our freedom to disagree, our freedom to call bullshit out for what it is, and to create our own working definitions of patriotism. Perhaps more than freedom, we have a responsibility...a duty, as real Americans to not take on blind faith that what our government is doing is right or something to be agreed to without question.