thelastpsychiatrist.com - An Army of Narcissists? No Way. Adnotated.

A tremendous exampleⁱ of the societal narcissism I wrote about in my Time article with the funny cover. If there was any one organization that I would have thought was in direct opposition to narcissism it would be the military, yet here it is, being specifically promoted.

I understand the practical necessity of this approach, of course; trying to tap into a listless and apathetic populace who get their current events from clips of the Colbert Report on YouTube -- they can't even be bothered to find Iraq or Afghanistan on a map, let alone enlist. But mark my words, when a military cannot effectively appeal to any higher beliefs at all, and must resort to patronizing illusions of self-fulfillment only, then this society cannot last.ⁱⁱ

Look at the evolution of the slogans, and tell me I am exaggerating (from Army Times)

“Today’s Army wants to join you”: 1971-73.
“Join the people who’ve joined the Army”: 1973-1979.
“This is the Army”: 1979-1981.
“Be all you can be”: 1981-2001.
“An Army of one”: 2001-2006.

Look at the grammar, the semiotic connotations. A question for the historians would be whether or not a civilization in decline was aware that it was declining; and if not, what did they think was going on?ⁱⁱⁱ

But perhaps all is not lost. The Army just announced their new recruiting motto, which has apparently tested quite well: "Army Strong."^iv
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As an aside, the "Army Strong" campaign was created by the Army's new advertising firm, McCann Erikson. They're responsible for the MasterCard "priceless/there are some things money can't buy" campaign. Of course, this cost the Army one billion dollars.

I'll go back to psychiatry now. ^v

1. I ended up using his tiny post stamp of an illustration because after perusing thousands of USGstani agitprop images (which mostly consist of the red star repeated ad nauseam) I could not actually locate another verson. As it turns out,

   "Army of One" was a relatively short-lived recruiting slogan. It replaced the popular "Be All You Can Be" and was replaced in 2006 by the new slogan "Army Strong".

   Apparently even they could figure it out -- perhaps by reading TLP, considering this article was published December 26, 2006.

   [↩]

2. Doh. [↩]
3. The US was never and never was a civilisation. [↩]
4. It stood for a little over a decade, but recently they're "Warriors Wanted", as fucking if. [↩]
5. I was always kinda background worried that my Trilema articles are all over the place, "value" or "quality"-wise, admitting such could be measured. But this guy, he's got at least ten times the variance, I guess I really had nothing to worry about. [↩]