War as Popular Culture: The Gulf Conflict and the Technology of Illusionary Entertainment

INTRODUCTION By many accounts, the Gulf War was the best-orchestrated war in recent American memory. The American government and military received tremendous ovations nationally and internationally for the execution of the war. Hence, much of the post-Gulf War analyses have revolved around the reasons for the extreme popularity of the war. A consensual theme that emerged from post-war discussion is that the war was immensely popular because the American news media failed to examine critically the activities of the American government before and during the war (McLaughlin and Catania; Jhally, Lewis and Morgan). The reasoning is that the news media did not lead a meaningful discussion about the historical background to the Iraqi-Kuwaiti conflict and the policies of the American government in the Gulf region, thereby implicitly encouraging the public to support the war. Kellner notes that, "During the Gulf War, the mainstream media were cheerleaders and boosters for the Bush administration and Pentagon war policy, invariably putting the government spin on information and events concerning the war" (1). The American news media may have overcompensated for the "Vietnam-Guilt" by barely investigating American government claims against Iraq before and during the Gulf conflict.(1) But this in and of itself does not entirely explain the popularity of the Gulf War. The war must also be examined within the paradigm of contemporary popular culture to understand its enormous appeal. This study argues that the technology of illusionary entertainment, with recreational violence as its driving force, has created a social environment that has routinized violence. An important attribute of illusionary entertainment such as television and video/computer games is to create a comfortable psyche that allows players to be immersed in recreational violence without the traditional sense of remorse associated with such behaviors in real life. Video game players can mow down hundreds of people with the most awesome technology of human destruction devoid of moral concern because they are operating in a make-believe mindset. Television viewers can watch the most bizarre violent activities in the name of recreation. In essence, the technology of illusionary entertainment has made it possible for the public to transfer bizarre and uncomfortable reality readily into the realm of illusion. Since the Gulf War was presented to the American public with the icons of the technology of illusionary entertainment, the war simulated video and computer games. The public saw the war from the realm of illusion and not from the realm of reality. The Gulf War in effect simulated the technology of illusionary entertainment, and the public became enthralled more with the awesome display of the technology of human destruction, devoid of a sense of moral concern and responsibility. So in one sense the popularity of the Gulf War could be interpreted as a manifestation of how the technology of illusionary entertainment has both routinized violence and delegitimized moral concern in contemporary popular culture. The study first discusses how the technology of illusionary entertainment, such as television and video/computer games, treats violence as entertainment and creates a social environment that routinizes real violence. The study argues that since the Gulf War was presented to the American public with simulations of the technology of illusionary entertainment, the public was "entertained" by the war. The study concludes that an important legacy of the Gulf War is the implication the war raises about the influence of the technology of illusionary entertainment on public conceptualization of moral responsibility in contemporary popular culture. THE TECHNOLOGY OF ILLUSIONARY ENTERTAINMENT Technological innovations generally harbor intrinsic ideological orientations. The technology of visual entertainment, for instance, subsidizes an ideological orientation that presents most social issues, regardless of consequence, as amusing (Postman). …