“Sniper” and “Selma” Expose America’s Number One Addiction

It was a sniper-which some believe was from the U.S. military-that also killed Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.(1) But you wouldn’t know it, especially as movie theaters remain empty showing “Selma” while “American Sniper” continues to draw record-breaking audiences.

Anne Wilson, in “When Society Becomes an Addict,” demonstrates that addictive behavior can become the norm in any given society, and that societies organizations can function as active addicts. Addictions can also be process oriented, pertaining to thinking.

For many Americans, then, living vicariously through the movie industry and its acts of virtual violence, war, and killing, has become addictive. This can also dominate one’s entire being, homogenizing the mind and standardizing speech, values, and behaviors.

“American Sniper” is based on Chris Kyle, who became a U.S. Navy SEAL and was known as the deadliest marksman in U.S. military history. While serving two tours in the U.S.-Iraqi War, he kills 255 individuals, 165 confirmed.

However, Kyle finds it difficult to adjust fully to civilian life, blaming his trauma on being “haunted by all the guys he couldn’t save”. He eventually adapts to home life and mainstream America by helping wounded veterans, coaching them at a shooting range.

“Selma” is about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his involvement in registering black voters. It not only reveals a meeting with President Lyndon B. Johnson, who was indifferent over senseless acts of violence towards blacks, but his imprisonment in Selma.

Moviegoers also witness Dr. King leading nonviolent marches for suffrage and authorities brutally assaulting peaceful protesters, even killing one. Yet throughout the movie, the power of love and revolutionary forgiveness and hope are constant themes.

Again, “American Sniper” is popular because Americans are socially engineered and captivated by two addictive organizations: the mass media and military-industrial complex-something Dr. King had planned to shut down before his assassination.

Since addicts live in a state of denial, and substitute critical thinking skills with addictive thinking disorders, institutional racism, economic inequalities, environmental degradation, and America’s aggressive war around the globe, are seldom questioned.

At the same time, America’s addictive systems, its military-industrial complex and its pro-war mass media, needs non-thinking and powerless citizens which have internalized aggression. This internalized aggression fortifies and justifies foreign atrocities.

Movies like “American Sniper” also misinform and spread dangerous ideas. Kyle is sent to Iraq after the September 11, making it appear Iraq was responsible for the attacks and that the U.S. was justified in pursuing a preemptive war and occupying the nation.

Kyle, the hero of the movie, is shown not only killing male opponents, who are actually defending their homes, but he kills a woman and boy who attack U.S. Marines. Killing women and children become justifiable, a violent gun culture sanctified.

Because “American Sniper” portrays Kyle as a victim, the audience feels sympathy when he states: “I hated the damn savages (Iraqi Muslims) I’d been fighting.” Such scenes cause moviegoers to initially live vicariously through Kyle, but then later in real time.

It also shifts their anger away from violent and addictive systems, which keeps them ensnared, redirecting it towards innocent Muslims. Since the movie’s release, anti-Muslim threats and anti-Islamic hate speech has tripled. So too has anti-Muslim attacks.

America’s addiction towards violence, killing, and war, its addictive media and military-industrial complex, has produced self-centered individuals. On an organizational level, this why everything that happens in the world is seen as either for or against the U.S.

Still, actions by other nations are always viewed within the framework of America’s addiction. Americans are no longer able to comprehend the power of nonviolence or fight for real freedoms and real rights, let alone peacefully negotiate with other nations.

Sadly, “Selma’s” low turnout reveals the death of nonviolence, participatory democracy, and the loss of historical memory. Internalized violence has nearly extinguished Dr. King‘s dream, fortifying instead a military machine’s outer addiction: war!

On February 2, Texas honored “American Sniper” by celebrating “Chris Kyle Day.” There was no acknowledgement of an ill-fated preemptive war that caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis. Nor was there mention of millions of Iraqi refugees.

The long term and deadly effects of the U.S.-Iraqi war on women, children, and the environment, were never raised. Yet as Dr. King’s actor said in “Selma”: “…everybody who is standing idly by and letting the killings occur is partially responsible...”

Dallas Darling is the author of Politics 501: An A-Z Reading on Conscientious Political Thought and Action, Some Nations Above God: 52 Weekly Reflections On Modern-Day Imperialism, Militarism, And Consumerism in the Context of John‘s Apocalyptic Vision, and The Other Side Of Christianity: Reflections on Faith, Politics, Spirituality, History, and Peace. He is a correspondent for www.worldnews.com.

(1) See “An Act of State” and “Death of a King” which reveals evidence that the U.S. military was responsible for the assassination of Dr. King, especially since he became an outspoken opponent of the Vietnam War.