So why the bitching and the rolleyes? Your initial post (no. 29) was quite inconsistent with your second-to-last post, much of which I agree with. I’ll only say, in reference to your saying that “no one was hurt by the song,” that I never claimed the song hurt anyone – not physically, anyway. I only meant that it impairs our ability to climb out of the hole that Abu Ghraib and other incidents put us into, credibility-wise.
I disagree. Black comedy is very old and fairly mainstream, as well.
Some of the most mainstream shows out in America today cross this line and many others every single night on television. If something is wrong with our soldiers, then it is wrong with this country as well.
Listen to some of the songs that have been on Family Guy or American Dad. I just don’t think that this type of humor is something that is even “across the line” in mainstream American culture today.
You can be opposed to militarism all you want, but we live in a world in which militaries must exist. That isn’t something you can argue about one way or another, it’s a fact. And since we live in a world where militaries must exist, we have to train soldiers, even if it is just a modern form of militia. And when these men are actually forced into the situation of having to fight for their lives they have absolutely no interest in overall strategy, high minded principles or anything else. Their interest lies in getting through one day, then the next, then the next, until eventually they can go home. A lot of them will find “dark humor” in the form of inappropriate cadences helpful in keeping their mind off that sickening fear that lies in their stomach almost all the time, and will even sometimes make them forget it is even there.
