As a teacher and adjunct English professor for a decade and a half, I have taught on war and literature, and the military-industrial complex and war profiteering for years. I show Eugene Jarecki's excellent documentary "Why We Fight", assign readings from King's April 4, 1967, "Beyond Vietnam" speech, Howard Zinn on Thoreau, poets and writers from Aeschylus to Tim O'Brien, etc., and have students, many of whom are actually veterans, research and write on war and its consequences. This book was recommended to me by the journalist Jason Coppola, after he had seen that I had read Nick Turse's powerful and painful "Kill Anything that Moves", and I am thankful that I received the recommendation, for it is an important work that I will use for years in my teaching. For someone like me, who has read Chomsky for nearly two decades and follows alternative media like Democracy Now! regularly,very little of this is new to me, but I learned much reading this and meditating on the truly ubiquitous reach of the many tentacled beast for which the "military-industrial complex" only conveys a partial naming. It is sinister. And reaches into almost every aspect of our lives, from the obvious range of militant children's toys and other cultural phenomena that we rarely question, however much they shape us, to the multudinous range of corporations which have contracts with the US military, from oil companies to media conglomerates to sunglasses companies like Oakley, clothing corporations, food suppliers, and Starbucks. There is a military-industrial academic complex, and so much more. As far as readibility, I will admit that it gets bogged down in numbers in the first 50 pages or so, but get through it--it is worth it. I also feel that a newer version needs to be put out, for we have seen a new issuing of movies sponsored by the military, like "Red Dawn", and new movies and so many aspects of our society that train us to think about our troops being involved in "urban warfare". Think the new version of "Judge Dredd" when one thinks of scenarios, armor, etc. And the material on the history of the development of video games as training for the military is very important (especially in relation to how it trains civilian children to want to become soldiers, etc.). Anyone who has read the father of "killology", Dave Grossman, (whether "On Killing" or "On Combat" should know how he warns of this effect on the psyches of young people. As a teacher and a father, in the last couple of years, I have seen teenage boys infinitely more knowledgeable in aspects of the US military arsenal and tactics, especially through games like the manifold reconfigurations of "Call of Duty". I wish that there was more of this in this book, but it was written before this became the trend, which is perhaps one of the most successful tricks for indoctrination and training pre-enlistment the US government has pulled off. And, by the way, all of those insect-size drones, and plans for interning US citizens that you see on the Internet used to scare you into believing that whatever page or demagogue knows the sinister conspiracy plan that will do us all in--well, don't fall for the groups, but those drones and those plans ARE actually real. And much more that should scare you and anger you if you are truly an American (I don't mention other countries here as most of them are usually wise enough to fear America and what is happening, though, of course, somnolence and complacency are not a particularly American attribute unshared by the rest of the world, just something I care about combatting here).
“Certainly, the day is not far off when most potential U.S. troops will have grown up playing commercial video games that were created by the military as training simulators; will be recruited , at least in part, through video games; will be tested, postenlistment, on advanced video game systems; will be trained using simulators, which will later be turned into video games, or on reconfigured versions of the same games used to recruit them or that they played as kids; will be taught to pilot vehicles using devices resembling commercial video game controllers; and then, after a long day of real-life war gaming head back to their quarters to kick back and play the latest PlayStation or Xbox games created with or sponsored by their own, or another, branch of the armed forces.
More and more toys are poised to become clandestine combat teaching tools, and more and more simulators are destined to be tomorrow’s tools, and more and more simulators are destined to be tomorrow’s toys. And what of America’s children and young adults in all this? How will they be affected by the dazzling set of military training devices now landing in their living rooms and on their PCs, produced by video game giants under the watchful eyes of the Pentagon? After all, what these games offer is less a matter of simple military indoctrination and more like a near immersion in a virtual world of war, where armed conflict is not the last, but the first—and indeed the only—resort.”
Nick Turse “The Complex: How the Military Invades Our Everyday Lives” (140)
Loading your book clubs
There was a problem loading your book clubs. Please try again.
Not in a club? Learn more
Join or create book clubs
Choose books together
Track your books
Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club that’s right for you for free.
Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required. Learn more
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle Cloud Reader.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.
Flip to back Flip to front
Follow the Author
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now.
Frequently bought together
- +
Total price:
To see our price, add these items to your cart.
Choose items to buy together.
Customers who viewed this item also viewed
Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1
About the author
Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Customer reviews
Top reviews from the United States
There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.
This topic really should be part of school curricula, but, of course, military indoctrination is standard.
Reviewed in the United States on February 8, 2015Reviewed in the United States on September 16, 2011
Reviewed in the United States on March 26, 2010
Reviewed in the United States on March 31, 2013
Top reviews from other countries
Mr. D. T. Marchesi
Read the label !
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 26, 2011
