Sinner Man

In the day shalt thou make thy plant to grow, and in the morning shalt thou make thy seed to flourish: but the harvest shall be a heap in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow. ~ Isaiah 17:11

Nationalism and white supremacy are intertwined in the national psyche of the United States. Nowhere is this more plain than in the popular culture as expressed by Hollywood movies. There is a history of it on display going back 100 years to "Birth of a Nation" where the heroic Ku Klux Klan protects the honor of white women from the threat of non-whites portrayed as bestial sub-humans. That blatant imagery has become a bit less obvious in the intervening century, yet it is no less insidious. Hollywood war movies have often been the epitome of a particularly pernicious type of U.S.- exceptionalist propaganda. The John Wayne western was taken further afield during Vietnam, after all the Indians had been killed or rounded up, and were no longer a threat to Manifest Destiny, in the form of the railroad robber barons' bottom lines. For all the anti-war Vietnam movies that Hollywood produced long after the war ended, there was only one movie made during the war, and it was totally pro-war. Funny how that works. The movie was called "The Green Berets" and it portrayed the noble endeavor of winning the hearts and minds of the lesser peoples to freedom and democracy. Never mind that we had just taken over the colonial legacy of France in suppressing anything resembling democracy from occurring since the natives had voted the wrong way and could not be trusted to vote the right way, the U.S.-preferred way.

So check out the ending of "The Green Berets". There is John Wayne as Uncle Sam telling the Vietnamese boy "you're what this war is all about". That sentimental characterization of paternalism, U.S. foreign policy-style, so full of good intentions to help these child-like savages find the right God (cowboy capitalism) even if it takes bombing them back to the Stone Age to do it. That is the common theme; teaching civilization to the seething hordes. They need our help because they don't know the Christian God. Coincidentally, they also need our help in making proper use of the natural resources around them. Their dehumanization is a necessary step on the way to genocide and Hollywood imagery is a key part of the process. The rest of the world sees this for what it is, but the eyes of some lower class whites see it as doing the world's oppressed people a favor. 

Now we have another example, one that strikes a deep chord among the white supremacists who feel increasingly threatened and their time running out. These are the useful idiots who identify with the masters of capital that have left them destitute and looking downward on the economic ladder for a scapegoat. There is a great irony in their defense of a system that exploits them mercilessly, that sends them off to do the dirty work, then drops them through the safety net to a hard landing after the work is done. They speak of the superiority of this system, yet have such a small stake in it that they are reduced to feeling pride for what they had at birth. 

Expect a visceral reaction from them if you question the nobility of the caucasian warrior hero. Where does that reaction come from? Cognitive dissonance? Can they ever admit that invading Iraq was anything but genocide? Do they know how Chris Kyle died? Does it seem a bit ironic that he was shot dead by a fellow veteran suffering from PTSD? Do they know that when you dehumanize an "enemy" you lose your own humanity?
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So I run to the Lord, please hide me, Lord. Don't you see me prayin'? Don't you see me down here prayin'? But the Lord said, "Go to the Devil". The Lord said, "Go to the Devil." He said, "Go to the Devil." All along that day. So I ran to the Devil. He was waitin'. I ran to the Devil. He was waitin'. I ran to the Devil. He was waitin'. All along that day.