The Army’s Hollywood Fantasy Ends in Failure

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Understaffed and under pressure, America’s military may not be up to the job. We may be getting a service that can’t meet the demands America’s interventionist leadership will put on it.

The Navy and the Army are both offering “prep courses” so more recruits can meet already low standards. This might work for physical fitness, but intelligence? The AP gave a positive spin on the story of Daysia Holiday, a black girl who failed the academic test three times, before a prep course helped her finally pass. “I still want to try to do Green Beret,” she said. “And, I want to do other courses — airborne and stuff like that. And I want to also try to become an officer.”

The New York Post’s call these prep camps “boot camps without the yelling,” but recruits eventually go through boot camp. The standards there may be low, but they’re not abolished.

The armed forces must coax and wheedle recruits to serve their country. It’s not surprising, since they have done their best to purge its ranks of patriots who actually wanted to serve.

With nationalists out, the Army recruits through pop culture. It resurrected its “Be All You Can Be” ads recently but put a black face on the message with narration by actor Jonathan Majors. It also spent $2.2 million on a 30-second ad during the NCAA basketball championships,. “We are reinventing ‘Be All You Can Be’ to bridge the gaps of knowledge, relatability, culture, and trust among our youth audience,” said Major General Alex Fink.

Screenshot from the “Be All You Can Be” ad campaign.

Jonathan Majors may be most prominent black actor right now, with a major role in the new Creed movie (the reworked Rocky movies that put the spotlight on a black hero). In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, he plays “Kang,” an extraordinary intelligent and almost godlike hero whose “variants” conquer multiple timelines. He was also a star in Lovecraft Country, another exercise in racial incitement that violates the work of white advocate and horror icon H.P. Lovecraft and equate whites with horror. Lovecraft’s eldritch monsters are good now. They fight racist cops.

The government picked a spokesman who played a “Kang” and hoped NCAA fans and MCU addicts would rally to the legacy of George Washington. It all collapsed when police arrested Jonathan Majors on charges of strangulation, assault, and harassment after he allegedly attacked his girlfriend. He says he’s innocent and, in his defense, he’s the one who reportedly called 911.

The Army said he is innocent until proven guilty, but admitted that “prudence dictates that we pull our ads until the investigation into these allegations is complete.” That means scrapping a campaign that cost $117 million. It will cost more to plan a new one. For now, the Army is reusing old ads without Mr. Majors so it doesn’t lose advertising spots it already paid for. Will the Army hire another diverse actor?

The Army reportedly picked Mr. Majors because its ad director thought he showed “gravitas” in Lovecraft Country. Mr. Majors could be a “big brother or big sister to the young adult making this [recruitment] decision,” said John Carstens, the executive director of the firm that made the ad. He added that “patriotism is not the point,” because it “doesn’t really play with our Gen Z audience.” Thus, instead of “going through history to salute the flag,” it needs to be about “protecting and defending Americans, as opposed to somebody’s idea of what America is or what America ought to be.” Because there’s so little patriotism, the Army appeals to a vague sense of being some kind of hero.

Real Americans may be waking up. Before it was taken down, the comment section on the Army’s ad seemed to be entirely hostile. It’s gone now, of course, but comments included:

• “I will never fight for people who hate me.”
• “As a privileged white male, I am so proud we have so many transgenders and people of color in the military. I will sit down and listen and let them do the fighting.”
• “Nobody in my neighborhood flies the flag or speaks English. Thank you for fighting for me.”

Various other comments mocked the perceived objectives of American foreign policy to save the world for mass non-white immigration and bizarre sexual policies.

The comments may have been an exaggeration, but not by much. That is what America is fighting for. It’s what younger Americans have been taught to venerate, even as they are instructed to despise America’s past. A recent study found that patriotism, religious faith, and having children are all increasingly unpopular. Just 38 percent said patriotism was very important, compared to 70 percent in 1998. Just 23 percent of young people thought so. The one thing that increased in importance was the desire for money.

Why should non-whites be patriots in a country built by whites who exploited them? Why should whites be patriots if it’s morally wrong for them (unlike everyone else) to be proud of their heritage? What is a nation other than a group of people with a shared heritage? Progressives and white advocates may agree that “racism” is simply a more coherent form of patriotism.

“Patriotism is for white people,” complained The Root in 2017. Yes. White people are more likely than non-whites to love America, but America’s rulers rulers do not love them.

One may say America is about “equality,” but the equality is impossible, and a country by its nature is exclusive and discriminatory. If America doesn’t know what it is, it’s not surprising our rulers can’t find young people to defend it. America thrives on media fantasy, and the Army thought Hollywood glamour might lure Generation Z. The result was a fiasco.

Media is powerful, but fantasy is not reality. A military with low standards that discriminates against white conservatives won’t attract good people. It will attract non-whites who want a job. Maybe some of them will want to be “all that they can be.” That might not be much.