I don;t have any comments to add to this page – it, more than any other I’ve done so far, speaks for itself, I think.
We’re well and truly underway with Chapter 5, now, that’s for sure. It was one heck of a week up here in New Eng-A-Lund, what with several major snowstorms in succession, on top of a very busy workweek. Which is to say, par for the course.
Thanks so much everyone for the support and good wishes from last week! I don’t think I can say too often that you guys are great readers, and are a real blessing to someone like me. Your willingness to engage, your real showing of interest in what I’m doing here, is really wonderful, and makes it a lot easier for me to sit down each week and crank out another page. So thank you all for everything!
Until next week, all the best, folks!
“YOUR CAPITALIST DOES NOT RESPECT LIFE; NOT YOURS, AND NOT HIS OWN! EXPECT NO MERCY FROM HIM!
HE ISNOT LIKE US!
HE HAS BEEN CONDITIONED TO VIEW ACTS OF BRUTALITY AS COMMONPLACE! HE LONGS ONLY TO DIE FOR HIS GREEDY IDEOLOGY!”
😀
I’m so glad you get the point, that the rhetoric is transparent and interchangeable, just static to try to objectify an enemy.
I was actually wondering if they did this in the 6- commando universe
Pre-battle canned messages. Nice!
It’s only been twenty or so years since the end of the Cold War, and already it sounds corny, but this is the kind of stuff that would fly in a world like 6-Commando. As people who know me can testify, I’m not a believer in communism or socialism on any level, but neither do I believe in using ideology as a means of dehumanizing a person. So it was a little tough to write this scene. I think it strikes the right tone, though, particularly for a world like in 6-Commando which never had to grapple with Fascism, never had to come to terms with the extent to which Totalitarianism could be taken in a wartime context, and so never developed a frame of reference within which East and West could understand each other or their motives except through stereotypes and easy rationalizations.
Probably that’s why we’re more willing to forgive communism than fascism, because at the very least we were able to get along with the communists long enough to defeat the fascists, and so had at least some minor history of cooperation that we could use as a basis for some kind of diplomacy and peaceful interaction.
It’s usual to use rethorics and de-humanization to motivate your soldiers. In WWII German soldiers had “Gott mit uns!” (God is with us) written on their belt buckles. They defended the true way of life against the threat of the godless bolshevik Asian hordes… ^^
Likewise the US Army field manuals and intelligence bulletins portrayed the enemy soldiers as beast like brutes with no regard for their own lives and so on. They are available on the net as PDF and fun to read.
Rule of thumb: We’re the good guys, THEY are the enemies.
Don’t think otherwise!
It was in World War one that the Germans had the belt-buckle inscription, I’m sure of that, but I suppose regular German army units could have had them too during the second world war.
They used them in both wars.
I’m reminded of an exchange in Dr. Strangelove:
“Why don’t you try one of these Jamaican cigars, Mr. Ambassador, they’re pretty good!”
“Thank you, no, I don’t support the work of capitalist stooges.”
“Oh, only commie stooges, huh?”
Oh and my absolute favourite line in the movie
“You can’t fight in here, this is the war room!”
That one gets to me very time. “Hans… Are we the the baddies?” lol 😀
On a serious side though, I have often wondered about how many or few of the Germans that was not into Nazism but went out there because fear of reprisals.
Thing is, this kind of thing sometimes works. At least, before combat.
I couldn’t resist, but I hope I don’t insult…
“…AND BLIND RELIGIOUS FUNDAMENTALISM!!”
P.S. – What’s with Singapore? Are the Chinese invading?
Heheheheh… it’s quite easy to write this kind of propagandistic nonsense. But you’re right, it does work on some people. Easy rationalizations for hating people are a dime a dozen, and have been more prevalent since the last century or two because of the unfortunate invention of Total War. You can’t wage total war on someone you have any intention of allowing to live – you end up in the kind of desperate, annihilating struggle like we had in the World Wars, or in the Cold War, albeit in slow motion.
It is best to be true to the source matter. If you can quote directly all the better. And the absurdest aspect of it. There are those in this country who want the Cold War back! They are nostalgic for it.
The tv series “Americans” is set in the 1980’s, about a “family of Russian trained agents. Not the children.
The Chinese are invading, sort of. Peak Tourist Season. And the boys and girls in blue have an extensive shopping list to complete. During the one-day 50% off Nation-wide Sale. It’s going to be brutal. Those aren’t guns. They’re a special type of small battering ram. The scopes help them spot door-busters.
Though body armor is to (hopefully) provide protection against the fearsome, carefully sharpened Chinese elbow.
“YOUR ACCOUNTANT DOES NOT RESPECT LIFE; NOT YOURS, AND NOT HIS OWN! EXPECT NO MERCY FROM HIM!
HE ISNOT LIKE US!
HE HAS BEEN CONDITIONED TO VIEW ACTS OF RED-INKED BRUTALITY AS COMMONPLACE! HE LONGS ONLY TO DIE FOR HIS CAREFULLY TALLIED IDEOLOGY!”
Everyone else is commenting on the propaganda speech, but I’m noticing the marking on ‘Mike’s’ helmet. I don’t know what its called, but its one of those impossible shapes, a triangle that seems to twist around itself and could not physically ever exist. I get the feeling there is a message there.
Also, can anyone else imagine this being set to a Canadian version of the Team America theme?
😀
It’s not the first time it’s appeared.
Great. Now you got me browsing through my 6 Commando archive to track down when and where.
I believe it’s to indicate technical services branch, have seen it in chapter 1 IIRC.
😀
I now know what Mr. Average was alluding to as the connection to the previous chapter; it seems Mike is delving into the Colonel’s background?
😉
There was a similar “pep talk” by Robert Duvall‘s officer to his men in “Apocalypse Now” not much different. Called “false speciation” the attempt to psychologically render the enemy as “less than human.” It seems to work for many.
That ‘twisting triangle’ are one of those optical illusions where it plays with our processing of flat images into a form of 3-D. What Lovecraft was trying to do in his description of the ruins where Chthulhu was imprisoned.
So… Mike is one of the Great Old Ones? That’d explain an awful lot
It’s a stylized representation of a Möbius Loop, which is a symbol for Infinity. It’s a physical paradox – a one-sided, three-dimensional object I’ve always found incredibly cool. So I made it the symbol of the UNA Technical Services (Robotics) Branch.
“Clearly, you’ve never been to Singapore.”
–Captain Jack Sparrow
That look when he says Singapore tells you alot
The canned speech is not far off from actual early cold war messages
http://www.designer-daily.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/america-under-communism.jpg
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_O0ch3ABb3L4/TN0UG03YMiI/AAAAAAAACcs/c4kK1OmGXmg/s400/red-rape.jpg
Mike romping around Colonel’s memories, this should be a trip. We spent so much time watching him break down into a villain, it’ll be nice to re-humanize him by watching his scars form.
Wow, we humans don’t have much in the good-natured department, do we?