Just Got Back (From Iraq and Nam)
“Just Got Back”, an unprecedented Music Video, uses stunning unaired original photos from the Vietnam War, of Vietnam Veterans protesting 1972 Republican convention in Miami, of 1990s war-devastated Iraq, and of a modern thriving 2008 Vietnam, to show that life does return to normal in a land invaded and occupied by an aggressive military empire once that empire’s military adventurism is finished and its armies have long been withdrawn. Also depicted is the plight of the empire’s indentured conflicted soldiery.
“Just Got Back”, the song, uses humor and irony, soaring idealism and practical expressionism to point the way to how to immediately improve the world – simply abandon military adventurism, a peaceful pragmatism.
The video was put together independently by someone else, with only my initial loose coaching, and I’d be curious to know if it makes sense to you. I get it, but I think that could partly be because I really really want to. Even so, I see the narrative as both effective literally in a good number of places, but with a huge subliminal subcontext that’s necessary to hold the whole thing together – the challenge having been to make a ‘story’ using widely disparate photos from across four decades, and then make them conform to symbolic and literal prose imagery embedded in lyrics mostly written in 1984. It’s only a rough cut with a smoother and less zoomy version to follow.
Rag Blog would get the worldwide exclusive as far as I know (though I suppose there could be a tribe somewhere in Utter Phlegmland that has erected a fetish genuflection cult around it; hmm, wonder if I’d get royalties for that).
Larry Piltz / The Rag Blog
This is VERY POWERFUL! It would be wonderful to see it aired on major news and other television channels!
Last night I watched THE LAST SAMARI (sp?????), and what struck me was a certain sense of ‘fairness and balance’ when ingenuity was used in conflict. When utilization of what nature provided, was harnessed as strategic warfare and turned into weapons of defense.
Then when ‘technology’ reared its head in the form of a gun (and guns don’t grow in forests; they are not a natural resource), it created an imbalance of power and caused destruction of life because it was no longer ‘one-on-one’, but allowed the soldier to remain at a ‘safe distance’ from bodily harm, while firing a projectile that could kill another swift and clean.
In your video, you remind us of that very ‘weapon’ – that technology that has killed millions, and made billions for the manufacturers of weapons – mass destruction, and our country is one of the largest ‘offenders’.
There’s an article about the only industry that is not being adversely affected by this ‘crash’ on Wall Street, and that is the military and those in the business of building weapons, ships, aircraft, etc.
I think of good old ‘Don’ and his windmills and I’d bet we’ve kept our citizens swinging at very expensive wind-mills pretty much for 100 years. How do you keep them ‘down on the farm’ – it’s not always ‘barefoot and pregnant’ now is it………/ds
Okay, now I’ve got it spelled right I think – SAMURAI……
I checked Wiki’ – wanted to see if I could find out more about just how ‘true’ the film was. It seems it was a composite of a number of historical incidents, and a tad bit of creative license on behalf of those who produced and wrote it.
Still, the history of these people is pretty amazing to me.
I wanted to ‘paste’ this short bit of information here, because I’m wondering if in our country, are they able to instill this belief and thought into each and every American that joins the military service?
Clearly there are many countries who can ‘program’ their people in such a way they willingly commit suicide and die ‘for their country and cause’.
I guess what worries me is the likes of McCain and his slogan ‘country first’, sets off a warning bell in my mind; ‘country first’ – more war; more killing, more sacrifice???
I’d say we’ve been putting ‘country first’ and creating an even stronger class of ‘rich folk’ who live in this country – allowing and demanding we put ‘country first’ as we forget our own human rights and needs as a class of common people.
Anyway, these are the words spoken many many years ago – by a citizen of Japan:
“It is not the Way of the Warrior to be shamed and avoid death even under circumstances that are :not particularly important. It goes without saying that to sacrifice one’s life for the sake of :his master is an unchanging principle. That I should be able to go ahead of all the other warriors :of this country and lay down my life for the sake of my master’s benevolence is an honor to my family and has been my most fervent desire for many years.”
—-(30—-
So there you have it; frankly, I find it tragic but would certainly like it if someone could ‘teach me’ about why there should be ‘pride and honor’ in dying for a nation whose reasons for war aren’t based in honor or principal to start with. /ds
Note: If it seems I wandered from the subject of the post, I don’t think so.
I think the VIDEO SHOWS US WHY we should not allow ourselves to become ‘robots’ for a nation (or even a state).
Why we should NOT blindly put ‘country first’, because THE VIDEO SHOWS US WHAT HAPPENS WHEN WE DO.
We’re expected to believe that the high cost of war is because peace comes at a high cost. Nope, peace just is and one only has to start being peaceful – in the blink of an eye – and PEACE IS without cost of one damned life or dime! /ds