A redux of Vietnam war-era thinking

"The Duke"

If you are a male, you are more likely to remember when Mad Magazine was a real institution. Can't imagine girls appreciating that much - same with The Three Stooges.
One trait of Mad was for its various segments or chapters to have the word "Dept." in the title. You'll smile if you remember that. Everything was a department. So one day I saw "Put Up Yer Dukes Dept." It was a full-page photo of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, only it was doctored to have John Wayne's face for each person. This was both classic satire and biting commentary.
Weeks gave way to months which gave way to years during our tragic misadventure in Southeast Asia. Logic begged us to depart from it. Young people tended to embrace the logic. On the other side was a fog of illogic, broad brush statements about patriotism and having to "fight for our freedoms," as if an element of our population really wanted to jettison our freedoms.
All this fits a template that is reusable. And is surely in evidence now.
It becomes redundant to recite the absurdities put forward by our current president. It seems a distraction and a waste of valuable energy at a certain point. And it's futile because of the template that has a strong element of older Americans feeling they have to express themselves in a certain way.
There is no point in getting focused on the details, because logic gets shoved aside so much, as during the Vietnam war years. Nice little backdrop for my youth, right? "Body counts" from the carnage. There were no "front lines" so the suggested "progress" had to be judged by (alleged) body count numbers. (Why was General Westmoreland allowed to wear shorts so much?)
It just went on and on until it seemed like a drug that wouldn't let us go. Of course it did finally let us go. The old crusty patriots with their affinity for John Wayne basically dropped the subject. American young men who had fled to avoid the draft got "amnesty." At this point the John Wayne crowd had decided to basically retire from the fray. Not that they had really adjusted their world view. They just shifted their agenda to other fronts where they could behave like windbags again.
They are diminishing in number. Maybe their support of Donald Trump is like a "last stand" for this "America, love it or leave it" crowd. But we should never underestimate the damage these people can still do. I'm quite worried that this element of the population could have enough key people in power, like Attorney General William Barr, to effectively seize our elections. And then we might hurtle down a path like 1930s Germany, a scenario that I have suggested may have already begun. We disregard these risks at our peril.
It would be nice to assume that democracy can solve everything. We must hope and pray that democracy stays at the grass roots and not be impaired by nefarious, reactionary forces from higher up.
John Wayne was surely a symbol in bygone times. He was no more qualified to speak on politics from the right than John Lennon from the left. They were artists who had to adhere to very high standards in their artistic craft. They began feeding certain constituencies with political statements because it served their professional interests. Wayne looked and acted like a perfect symbol for the older, intransigent stuffed-shirt crowd. And Lennon sadly descended from his once endearing image to amoral stagnation ("Ballad of John and Yoko"). They became caricatures, Wayne especially so.
The real John Wayne seemed like a very nice and sincere person, probably more so than Lennon. Wayne's nature comes across in interviews done while he was filming his last movie, "The Shootist." In my opinion it was his best performance. It's sad that he felt he had to gravitate toward certain political ideas. He knew he probably had no choice after doing the movie "The Green Berets." Did you know that George Takei was also in the movie? We know George from "Star Trek."
One of the most obscenely offensive movies of all time, "The Green Berets" was a dose of pro-war propaganda. It came out in 1968 at the height of the tragedy. It was based on a 1965 novel. It was anti-communist. Oh, so that justifies everything. The people who bleed capitalism in our society, i.e. the people with the most personal assets to try to protect, are so afraid of any re-distribution of wealth. They decry "socialism" even though we're all quite content with Social Security and Medicare. They allow their most prominent spokesmen to decry "Obamacare" and to advocate for its end.
It's more symbolism than anything. Because heaven help us if this scattershot "symbolism" gets translated into action. It could well happen, as the door is swung open now for extreme "conservatives" to get the majority on the Supreme Court. There are rumors that a couple of the right-leaning justices could retire before the next election. This would allow Trump of all people to really put his wacky imprint on the court. Our whole nation could get thrown into convulsions. A revolution by the aggrieved could be attempted. It would meet the reactionary forces.
We got a mild preview with the military pushing aside protesters in Washington D.C. so Trump could do his stupid "photo op" with holding up the Bible (upside down). Again, this may have been a mild preview. For extreme conservatives or Federalists to take over the highest court in the land, appointed by someone who did not win the popular vote in 2016, is foreboding. America might fall into apocalyptic chaos. All because a wide swath of older voters succumbed to the psychological malady of embracing the John Wayne type of image.
I cite Wayne because it's what I grew up with. Can't forget the Vietnam war. It's analogous with what we're seeing now with the Trump crowd across the USA. So contrary to logic, science and disciplined thinking. We hear often that this swath is in retreat, it is in effect "dying off." Well, no one is going to root for dying, except maybe Trump himself who suggests we need to accept risks with the pandemic to get everything up and running again. Sacrifice the older folks I guess, the "Greatest Generation" that committed itself to stopping Fascism.
Not sure if the Nazis were really Fascists, as they've been described as a "death cult." Yes, just like the current lieutenant governor of Texas who says "there are more important things than living." He's fully invested in the Trumpian attitude: let's get the "economy" stabilized and most importantly keep the stock market looking good.
What would Jesus say? Is the Texas lieutenant governor a prelude to the type of attitude that will take over?
We are at a crossroads as I write this. I am 65 years old and do not want to be "collateral damage" in our nation's drive to get back to normal life. Families have older members who are loved dearly. Trump has practically bullied churches into assuming normal operations. But churches have a rather old and vulnerable demographic. So, what is Trump trying to accomplish?
This question is just as futile as wondering what the movie "The Green Berets" was trying to accomplish. Roger Ebert was revulsed and gave the movie zero stars. A New York Times writer wondered: "What has happened to the fantasy-making apparatus in this country?" A very cogent point indeed, as we wonder at present how far the faux conservative thought wave coming out of Fox News and like entities will go. People sit in front of cameras and assume a certain persona or attitude that they know will fly with a large enough audience to make the effort professionally rewarding.
It's like John Wayne with his moviemaking. I would say the "fantasy-making apparatus" is alive and well. Hollywood often fights back valiantly with truth-inspired movies like "Born on the Fourth of July" with Tom Cruise. All we are left with, is to root for good to prevail over evil and ignorance. Let's call it the "Fight for Truth Dept." of Mad Magazine.
 
I have a podcast addendum to share on this July 8, re. the question of how school should be approached in our rapidly-approaching fall. We have our president applying pressure now for fully in-person school. How much power should he have regarding this? What all are his motives? I invite you to listen to my podcast message from my "Morris Mojo" podcast:
https://anchor.fm/brian-williams596/episodes/Trump-pressuring-schools-egfpjg
 
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com

John Wayne in his best performance IMHO, in "The Shootist"