The Business of War #1 - Propaganda and Recruitment

_{Modified using an image by Defence-Imagery from Pixabay}

This post, and perhaps a series of posts, if I find time to do the research was inspired by a comment conversation that I had with @shanibeer on my recent @ecotrain the question of the week post.

In that post I talked about the need for protest and activism, particularly in how it pertains to the arms trade, and trying to wake up the public consciousness to the fact that war is big business.

There are many people getting rich (either shareholders or owners of arms-producing companies) from the suffering and death of people in Civil wars like that in Yemen.

But if we didn't sell them the guns, someone else would. You might say and I'd respond not if the majority of people didn't think like you and stood up, made their voices heard, and even took direct action. A democratic government will think more than twice before they decimate and destroy a majority of people saying 'not in our name.'

Anyway, Shanibeer said...

I'd be interested to know the demographic profile of soldiers.

Which started my research brain spinning.

The MOD and gov.co.uk certainly don't want us to see up-to-date demographics on army recruitment based on class, or areas of the country, as I've just checked and they're offering up stats from 2014 and before only.

Shani also pointed out...

I suspect there may be a class thing, as in working class thing, going on there. There have long been protests in Leicester about army recruitment methods including letting children climb all over tanks parked in the middle of a busy shopping area or at festivals.

And she is right, it is impossible to ignore that they target the lower (working) class areas here in the UK with feet on ground recruitment or PR events. Mainly looking for infantry fodder or people who'd like to drive a tank or speed across the desert in a gun mounted jeep, and when they get the odd well educated upper-middle-class person walk into a recruitment office they earmark them for more specified roles.

How would you know that? You're just assuming things and spinning them to your own agenda raj808 you might say.

To which I can only answer that I met someone who had that exact experience when I was in university. I friend of a friend who came from an upper middle-class background walked into the army recruitment office, and within three days, and numerous psychological tests, he was offered training in the sniper division.

The study below is a little more revealing in actual demographics of how the UK armed forces recruit and this quote I have taken from it tells a clear story.

Results: The study sample consisted of 1000 male recruits who were recruited consecutively at the training centre with a mean age of 19 (SD = 2.3 years; see Table 1). Of the total sample, 23% (n = 232) left school before they were 16 years of age, only 9% (n = 91) stayed on in school after the age of 17. The ethnic mix was predominately White British, with only 22 (2%) recruits recording themselves as Black British.
_{Source: academic.oup.com}

_{Modified using an image by Dr StClaire from Pixabay}

The Armed Forces Propaganda Machine

Weapons for all occasions... and everyone got excited about the technology, and I guess it was pretty incredible watching a missile fly down an air vent, pretty unbelievable... but couldn't we feasibly use that same technology to shoot food at hungry people?

_{A quote from the late great comedian Bill Hicks, check out the full sketch (quote taken from at around the 2.08 minute mark in the sketch, but I recommend watching the whole sketch) on this link.}

Bill Hicks is perhaps one of the finest comedians who hides fundamental truths within their comedy so that it seems less controversial. And he did it masterfully, as he ended up on Saturday Night live in the States for a time 😂

Shani mentioned...

As for TV and other media advertising promoting soldiering: they never seem to mention the fundamental point that when push comes to shove, your job is about killing people or being wounded or killed yourself.

They are upping their advertising campaign right now in the UK and the adverts never show actual images of combat.

The most recent one I saw is where an army guy going on about how he became an engineer in the Royal Navy, banging on about training for further jobs in civilian life and set on an aircraft carrier ship. So, as I've worked in marketing for a brief time, let's break down the PR message they're sending with that particular advert on a ‘lie vs truth’ basis.

One

Lie: You're definitely going to get trained for a job after your tour of duty in the army, the inference being that there is little chance you're going to die, and will come out of a five-year contract with much better prospects.

Truth: there are no guarantees you're going to be trained in anything other than basic weapons training, missile use, maybe drone targeting skills, and definitely hand-to-hand combat, possibly vehicular combat. You are very likely to be deployed to a war zone as infantry (especially as they're up-ing their advertisement PR drive now due to what is happening with Russia) and you will have to kill people and might die yourself.

Lie: You will most probably be stationed on a large safe aircraft carrier, or some other long-range tactical weapons base, where you will enjoy healthy sea breezes and the wind in your hair... yo ho ho it's a rum ole time is the sailors life. 😉 I'm going a bit over the top here with my piss taking but that is what the advert shows, it shows a guy who has been trained as an engineer basically doing mechanical checks on jet fighter planes to ensure they're flight safe. The sun is shining and the sea looks inviting... to me anyway as a scuba diver 😂

Truth: There is no way you can choose, or are likely to be assigned to large tactical bases like that unless you've been through officers college, which is a place that they recruit for at private schools, places like Eton. You will be placed in active duty in a role based upon personality tests and performance in basic training.

I'm not going to point out any more of the PR spin in that advert. As with all PR it is all about finding one case that looks very appealing, such as this guy who is working as an engineer on an aircraft carrier ship. Tell his story (which is a true story) and tell no other stories other than other carefully selected ones that are beneficial to your narrative.

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Two: I have seen the slightly more realistic recruitment videos for the infantry, such as the one above showing a soldier struggling in the desert, with a bunch of hallucinatory character's telling him to do various things that people do in normal society, all cast in a bad or farcical light... and at the end, it emphasizes how 'Army confidence lasts a lifetime' with a friendly arm up from his soldier pal.

Yet at least half of soldiers return from active duty plagued by nightmares, PTSD, and other psychological problems. That doesn't sound like a lifetime of confidence to me!

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Three: Here's another one I saw a while ago about the royal marines -

"human beings are programmed to fear the unknown; it's deep within us, protecting us from harm." It ends by saying: "you can be more than you ever thought possible, all a marine does is change what they think is possible."

Nothing is mentioned about what they really do getting behind enemy lines, killing quickly and silently in the most dangerous wartime environments, or taking on very dangerous extraction missions that see a high casualty rate. Not even a part of that advert shows them shooting their guns, and I shall explain why.

Having worked in marketing I understand the basics of PR, although I refused to work in the PR department of even a charity. The end goal is to control the narrative.

In advert one a relatively safe working environment, with prospects and training for a job after the army - aimed at early school leavers perhaps, or people who didn't go down the higher education route but are handy, clever, and good at fixing things. The final words 'start your journey.' No actual representation of what an aircraft carrier under combat conditions might look like, that is controlling the narrative, what they call in PR reputational management. Show the good, never show the bad.

In advert number two, being part of something better than the idiocy of 'normal life', and this one actually turns my stomach the most, as they are preying on vulnerable people, the portrayal of every character this soldier hallucinates is a caricature, an exaggeration of someone with problems. Maybe they are/were the alcoholic, or the steroid taking gym junkie. But join the army and they will be confident and get away from the depression of real life. Well, all I'll say, is don't believe that bullshit because if you're depressed going into the army will break you and make you one of two things, dead very quickly, or psychotic on the battlefield.

In advert three it is aimed more at people who have the drive to push themselves to physical limits already. Maybe marathon runners, or those who go one step further and do crazy things like Ironman challenges. The message behind this one is that you are breaking a mould of a normal human, forging yourself into something better, something that makes the impossible possible. Powerful imagery... that might be a part of the story, but the other part is that you will be the elite murdering force of the British armed forces.

So what they are really proposing is breaking you, and conditioning you to kill efficiently, without hesitation, and in the most difficult terrains. Again, the advert only shows a group of marines in a boat slowly moving through the mist. Scary indeed, but absolutely nothing compared to the shitshow that a full-on firefight or close quarter combat actually entails.

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To be honest, these adverts make me sick, and when I see them I mute the TV because I know there's nothing I can do about this level of propaganda coming from the MOD. Lying institutions that are doing what they've done for a long time, feeding on people's fears and insecurities to try and trick them into signing up for a horror show.

It is the writers of these adverts I'd like to square up to and let them know exactly what evil little rats they are, I really despise dishonesty in all forms. Even if there are wars, and soldiers are needed, tell them the fckn truth before they sign up, the people who produce these PR campaign adverts are scumbags.

The comedian I mentioned earlier, Bill Hicks, also said something in one of his comedy sketches that bears relevance to this article/deepdive/rant… whatever you choose to call it.

He said: “All governments are liars and murderers.”

I believe that the extremely thought out PR advertising campaigns I’ve outlined above prove what he said without a doubt.

I truly wish for a peaceful world, where people have broken social conditioning that creates division such as religious extremism, racism and the Machiavellian form of power-play politics that pervades the world today. But without enough people pushing, speaking out and acting to make this happen we will continue to elect sociopaths into positions of power rather than compassionate human beings who might recognise the need to change the systemic things I pointed out in yesterday’s @ecotrain post, and that I have outlined above.

Thanks for reading.

The images used in this post are all creative commons licence, linked to credit beneath the picture. If you have enjoyed this post, please check out my other work on my homepage @raj808.

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