In fact, I really think you understand what I'm getting at.

What pisses me off is that video. That's not about love of country and honoring the vets. That video is a commercial, its advertising, propaganda, it is pushing a political point of view and a cultural agenda. It used to be a lot more common, but its making a comeback, now. And that POV is more about domestic politics and economic policy and even labor and corporate and tax policy; an attempt to exploit peoples' natural love of country and respect for those who put their lives on the line to defend it. And it does that by questioning the motives and legitimacy and patriotism of anyone who doesn't support that POV. "You don't agree with me, completely and whole-heartedly, then you must be a traitor or a villain or a fool."
There is a subtext there, a hidden message. I've known it since I came back from that war and, contrary to what has been drilled into us continuously ever since, NOBODY spit on me, or called me "baby-killer" or shunned me because I had short hair and wore my uniform on Fridays before I went to Reserve meeting. It wasn't hippies versus vets, the vets all were hippies. And none of them were spit on, or called baby-killer, or shunned either.

That film is a production, someone hired cameramen and filmmakers and actors, worked long and hard on a script, paid a lot of money to get that patriotic message across, so people could feel fuzzy and warm about the message, and therefore learn to despise those who won't swallow it, to hate anybody who dares question it. You don't do this out of love, you get hired by someone to do it for a very specific reason.

How do I know this? Because I've had this flag shoved in my face for as long as I can remember. Barry Sadler, John Wayne, the Pledge of Allegiance, the homeroom prayers, singing Dixie before the football game, the whole shooting match. There was something in my growing up that made me suspicious about it from the start. Ever since I was a kid, I could see the game they were playing. Do you really want to know why the hippies burned the flag? It wasn't because they hated it, but because they hated seeing it fouled and dishonored by the cynics that wrapped themselves in it and rubbed it in our faces.

And it ain't about Americanism vs Communism, either. The Communists in Cuba tell little stories and play little commercials just like that to indoctrinate THEIR kids. I know, I've talked to them.

So isn't Country Joe and the Fish singing the "Gee Mom I'm Fixin' to Die Rag" at Woodstock political propaganda as well? Of course it is! No one is denying that. But it makes no bones about it. You know exactly where he's coming from and what his agenda is. He's not telling you what you need to think and he's not hiding the message wrapped up in god and country; He's telling you exactly what he thinks. And even if you don't agree with him, you have to admit he's being honest and up front about it.

Welcome to the Culture Wars. They're heating up again.