first person (plural) shooter

I'm sure soldiers, ever since there have been soldiers, have hooted adolescently in the throes of combat. What would we expect, that they'd go about their work gravely, constantly reminding themselves of the seriousness - the mortal seriousness - of the things that they do, the weapons that they discharge? That is undoubtedly too much to expect. The stupid talk and yells undoubtedly represent a release from the psychosis inspiring and inspired actions that they are committing.

It is not new, it is not groundbreaking, to think: "They sound like the subset of students that you see hooting and unawarely spewing stuff they heard in a movie somewhere. They always talk like this, yell like this. They likely feel most themselves when they most completely give themselves over to the canned material they have been served, night after night, for their entire lives."

What we hear is not the organic, the militaristically gnomic, the earthy - it is the sitcomedic. MTV trashtalk, some Full Metal Jacketisms (Kubrick would have loved this, at least in a way) thrown in.

And, because you too have seen the same movies, at least a lot of them, you are able to try to reconstruct any possible reason, any scenario at all, in which the cars that speed in, crash, disgorge their occupants, who then are blown away by the Americans. The sniper was in a car? The insurgents, after a lengthy pause, get into their little cars and attempt, as an act of insane bravery perhaps, to speed past the marines' position? Why?

Unlike the talk, no, the actions of the "insurgents" don't fit into any plausible script, especially not the one posted at the end of the video.

Comments

[Luther Blissett]

Michael Herr, who wrote much of the script of *Full Metal Jacket*, wrote an earlier work of "new journalism" about his time in the Nam. In it, he discusses this issue of soldiers recreating scenes and language from their favorite war movies.

Which is to say, it's ironic if soldiers are now recreating Herr's own recreations.

At the same time, let's not look down on the language of the soldiers on the ground. As one professor of mine put it, the entire language of the 60s counter-culture was ripped off from the boys and girls coming back from the Nam.

[Scott Milton]

"The stupid talk and yells undoubtedly represent a release from the psychosis inspiring and inspired actions that they are committing."

Well I'm doubting it, so let's see an argument as to why the stupid talk and yells represent such a release.

[Deke]

What we hear is not the organic, the militaristically gnomic, the earthy - it is the sitcomedic. MTV trashtalk, some Full Metal Jacketisms (Kubrick would have loved this, at least in a way) thrown in.

Ah agree with that man. Not so Kubrickian: more like an episode of Ren and Stimpy, some grunt-mercenaries of Pax Americana flying around in the Fed birds, shooting randomly at whatever moves. Yikes! At least even up the firepower, as in the beginning of some great game of stoner Risk. Yet the Feinsteinians signed off on it, and liberals of the last 50 years did shit in terms of taking on Islamic hysteria.

[CR]

At the same time, let's not look down on the language of the soldiers on the ground. As one professor of mine put it, the entire language of the 60s counter-culture was ripped off from the boys and girls coming back from the Nam.

That's not a good sign, if what's in the video is what we have to look forward to, counter-culturally speaking. I'm sure your professor was right about this, but today's US military is very, very different from that of the Vietnam era. Conscripts vs. volunteers. And check out the racial component. All white here, right?

Well I'm doubting it, so let's see an argument as to why the stupid talk and yells represent such a release

Hmm... I'm guessing that bringing it back home to the Xbox, while over there, verbally distances things, situations a bit. Trivializes them. Instead of just plain killing civilians, say, we're back on the couch with Call of Duty or whatever, MTV, some stupid ESPN show, basketball trashtalk. But I don't know...

Why don't you tell us what you think about it.

[Matt]

Or maybe it's that war, particularly one-sided war, makes you fucking stupid.

Perhaps that's what your professor was saying too, about "the counter-culture."

[muhahaha]

Temper temper, the lumpen mentality you discribe logically yields "stupid talk and yells".

So you've stooped to attacking the psyche of grunts.

...whats wrong?

[luci]

What, grunts are immune to "stupid"? All soldiers are to be revered?

What about soldiers of other countries - can they be "stupid"? Iranian soldiers? Japanese soldiers? (stupid until 1945, now not stupid?).

Is the rule then "just root for the home team?"