Modern Realities, Army Aesthetics

~Lucian Gomol

http://goarmy.com/army101/becoming.htm Viewed on4/20/04.

"This is going to make me more mature about things, make me care more about important stuff..."

--Ever, an army recruit featured on goarmy.com

Over winter break, I visited an aunt for dinner and was struck by her refrigerator covered with recent photos of family members, many of whom I hardly recognize anymore. Among them was a photograph of a cousin, four years younger than me, dressed in a green uniform, his hair shaved, standing proudly in front of a slightly blurred 'old glory' draped in the background. It was as if he was standing in the White House, the Pentagon, or somewhere equally 'important.' To my aunt, the picture functions as an archive of his success as a soldier/citizen--evidence that he is no longer a troubled boy with no promise of a future; but his half smile and blank stare told me that there is more to that photo than what it is meant to represent. Of course the army knows what it is doing when it sends such pictures home to the families of soldiers. Of course the photo was staged, produced in a studio in between hundreds of others taken on the same day. Knowing how my cousins and I, raised by high school-nostalgic construction workers and stay-at-home moms, were thrown into team sports almost from birth, conditioned to listen, learn and perform, it is not a surprise that he ended up in boot camp or the photograph. Of course, it really could have been me.

I carried the image with me mentally, back to my reality, and back to New York. It propels my interests in studying the fascistic ways the army represents itself in our cultural moment. Although there are clear differences between the U.S. army and 'authentic' fascist movements, marking the similarities is very useful; as Berghaus says, "I hope that this volume sharpens our understanding of what constitutes the performance aesthetics of fascist movements and how, under different historical circumstances, they can reappear in modified form" (Berghaus, 7). The army's website is one such modified form.

The trademark slogan 'an army of one' is a straightforward example of the army's clearly fascistic rhetoric. It suggests, like in fascist Italy and Nazi Germany, that the population of soldiers can exist as one harmonious machine-like body. It also gives the soldiers a sense of purpose, direction, and community. Griffin points out a seductive characteristic of fascism in relation to the rootlessness and chaos that people experience as a result of modernity: "It claims to do so by offering a new dynamic source of rootedness, community and hierarchy based on the organic nation, and many forms of it actively embrace modern technology and industrial civilisation, though only if integrated into a cohesive socio-economic order consistent with the needs of the nation" (Griffin, 14-15). All throughout the army's website are images of the most technologically advanced weaponry and modes of transportation, representing a full embrace of technological advance and evidence of the army's strength. And the rhetoric clearly suggests a sense of belonging/unity among the soldiers.

http://207.44.232.137/details.php?code=633 , Subvertize . Viewed on 4/4/04.

I find the army's section 'Basic Training' to be particularly fascinating and fascistic. In this 'documentary' section, the army presents the experiences of six people as they train to become soldiers. When one clicks on the section, s/he gets the dramatic, animated flash message: 6 RECRUITS 9 WEEKS SEE WHAT IT TAKES FOR THEM TO BECOME AN ARMY OF ONE

http://207.44.232.137/details.php?code=543 , Subvertize . Viewed on 4/4/04.

http://207.44.232.137/details.php?code=693 , Subvertize . Viewed on 4/4/04.

The web project resembles reality television, as it offers the user video clips of boot camp, as well as interviews with the soldiers-to-be and the drill sergeant. We can follow them through 9-10 weeks of training, with each week given a label such as 'direction,' 'endurance,' 'camaraderie,' and 'graduation.' So many of these title are fascistic. Other messages on the site are as well. For example, Jermaine, one of Basic Training's main characters, says "I don't think I have any weaknesses. If I do, I plan to kill off that weakness. Overcome it really fast." This can easily be related to our discussions of fascistic metaphors of contagion and emphases on regulated bodies. Also, we can see that 'unity' in the army does not depend on race, class or gender. Some of the soldiers even perform interviews in Spanish. However, following the Basic Training documentation shows us that anyone can be *conditioned* to look and act like each other--in 'gender-appropriate' ways, of course. Men of all types sport the same haircuts, and everyone learns how to move their bodies and pose for cameras in similarly regulated ways. Recalling my previous discussion of fascist realism, employing the ostensibly authentic mode of production that is 'reality television,' a recent obsession of the masses, can be viewed similarly to fascist manipulations of documentary and other realist forms such as the painting techniques of the Italian masters. Viewers are likely to see the 'Basic Training' films as transparent glimpses into the lives of soldiers, which might prove to be very effective; you might even be willing to click 'yes' on the annoying messages that ask if you'd like to enroll or receive more information.