Propaganda of even the crudest variety works well in the short term, so long as the press is state-run or state-minded. German soldiers eating babies, Iraqi soldiers unplugging hospital incubators, and Iraqi scientists building doomsday devices, were equally effective in propelling the American idiolectorate to war. But, long term, seen in hindsight as equally—even laughably—false these crude propaganda measures leave a bad taste in the mouth of the masses and make it restive where future wars are concerned.

By far the better long term propaganda machine is Hollywood. America is the nation of Superman, Ironman and Batman. The sentiment of ‘how could America be wrong if it is so cool’ is thus etched into the American film-goers mind from childhood. It is no accident that a Kuwaiti publisher is now churning out Islamic superhero comics. This is the kind of propaganda that shored up the empires of Rome and Britain; a belief that the empire is better than the alternative. And, to this day, historians, imbibers and disseminators of propaganda past, continue to believe these ancient lies.

When I was a kid the press wanted us to believe that the Kennedy administration was the equal of the fictional Camelot—even called this cabal of politicians and gangsters Camelot.

The most blatant example of modern Hollywood propaganda is Olympus Has Fallen [reviewed on this site], which, even in the title, deifies the American head-of-state. That film was built on the theme that is most standard throughout the current Hollywood narrative; that the U.S. military and the thousands of miles of oceans that separate us from any effective military, is completely incapable of preventing main battle-strength size units of terrorist combatants from occupying U.S. urban centers and from taking out the all important government. Politicians were depicted as heroes, cops and security personnel as mindless robots. Torture was glorified.

The common theme through most superhero and apocalyptic film is currently the hero cop. Since the military cannot protect the U.S. population, heavily armed and militarized armies of hero cops are needed. Even in The Walking Dead, cops are good guys and the remnant military is an evil force. In reality, in natural disaster situations, the police are usually the first to go bandit, with the military maintaining cohesion longer and actually saving asses.

I make no claim that these metaphors offered on film are conscious. It may be as crude as filmmakers tapping into news hysteria-generated fear. What I see in current superhero film is a liberal version of John Milus’ Red Dawn. I could not even bare to go see the remake.

The most insidious form that superhero films take is the yearning for the tyrant, the collective quest for the cosmic daddy figure.

I am about to tread on sacred adolescent ground here. Some good friends of mine really like Batman, so let me chart my relationship with him.

I never read a Batman comic. As a boy I watched the TV series and the movie, and thought Batman was really neat. I particularly identified with Robin, the Boy Wonder.

As a violent low-income teen watching Batman reruns I came to the realization that Batman could not fight at all, and, more ominously, that he was a rich queer and Robin was his bitch. I felt betrayed to say the least!

As a young father in the late 1980s and early 90s I rediscovered Batman in the Dark Knight cartoon. I really liked the Dark Knight.

As a middle-aged man I saw Batman Begins with Christian Bale who is my favorite actor, and was thrilled. Despite Batman being a rich son of privilege, the film was just so cool.

Last week I was viewing the latest Christian Bale Dark Knight movie, the title of which escapes me. Ajay kept shaking her head because I predicted every plot twist right on cue. Batman was still cool, was still the best thing about the flick. But the messages surrounding him were really disturbing. I was hoping to stomach the entire toxic message. Headed into the final half hour an army of gun-armed hero cops ran down the street like a human river, into the teeth of what should have been a withering cross fire from the machine gun armed terrorists. Both forces instead dropped their weapons and engaged in bad karate.

Click.

Rather than reveal anything from this really gripping if predictable movie, let me chart the lessons of the film, the not-so veiled messages for our youth:

The U.S. military is incapable of preventing main battle strength [that is company or larger] units from occupying our largest city, and with only three unarmed special forces soldiers and one F-14 available to effect a counter strike, has no hope of dislodging the invaders. The U.S. possesses no domestic-based drone fleet, and whatever intelligence measures our million plus spies are taking, will not be enough to protect us from a force stronger than that typically used to topple African governments not so long ago. Really, I felt bad for New Yorkers watching this film, as it was such a blatant play on 9-11 imagery.

Hero cops, if only given the chance, the numbers, and the weapons, can defend our nation from evil, despite using 1960s style hippie protester tactics.

Prisons house a hostile population of 100% violent offenders, that, if released in the event of a foreign invasion or domestic coup [It is not clear where the villains came from, but they were predominantly white and spoke American English.], will side with the invaders en masse and attack the general population [presumably including friends, neighbors and relatives]. The enemies of us all reside in prison. Remember that. Also, contrary to DOJ findings that many tens of thousands of incarcerated Americans are victims of violence and have been jailed for such non-violent crimes as drug use and homelessness, all of them are depicted as aggressively and randomly violent.

Female led martyr corporations, thus cleansed of toxic patriarchal values, will take on the burden of protecting us from terror, alongside the supportive politicians who have somehow misplaced their military and permitted the entire police force to descend into the subway system.

Only our wealthiest citizens have the ability to contest foreign and domestic military action. As much as we might dislike the corporate greed exemplified by Gotham City, the Stock Market is the one true religion, New York is its temple, the Chief of Police is its prophet, and we need to sacrifice to protect cheap goods made in China.

This was Red Dawn with a billion dollar budget written by some Green Peace punk.

Batman help us.