Militarisation?

On the news Lord of the Rings, Seb Coe, praised the heroic efforts of the army that have taken the reigns dropped by the astonishing failure of G4S. He salutes their courage, their indefatigability...oh, wait, wrong person. Nope, he's instead praising their professionalism and their 'grace'. Sounds like a nice advert for British Soldiers; the sort you might use to sell their services...nah, that's just conspiracy thinking!

Whatever. It just strikes me as weird how this played out. These guys are doing this job, ok fine, but they are in full uniform. Why? What reason is there to be seen in full military uniform at a civilian event? Doesn't that send out a particular message? I think it does and I think they knew this. To what end, I am not sure. I don't really want to entertain the mad views that some seem to have about the 'new world order' blowing up the games (they'd better hurry up then, it's all over come Sunday!).

But there is an issue about the creeping militarisation of our society. The level of acceptance by which soldiers are now seen, unquestioningly, as heroes. You cannot question this, you dare not! Anyone that tries tilting at that particular windmill is most certainly in for a world of hurt - especially if they are some schmuck on the dole with a blog! Yet we've got Armed Forces Day, where kids can play on bouncy castles next to recruitment stands and howitzers. Is this really the message we want to send, that we want to glorify what is essentially a dirty job that it seems as appealing to kids as toy guns and cowboy hats? As kids we used to play 'war' in the school fields during breaktime, all young boys do. There came a time when that was frowned upon. Yet fast forward to the here and now and we can't get enough of soldiers and their assumed obvious heroism. These people are the cultural heroes of the age. 

So there they are working the gates as stewards. They seem to need to have their full uniform to do this. Not only that but when asked, these guys are saying they love the job. They say it's exciting and that it's a wonderful opportunity! Seriously? Processing people at a public sporting event is that great? To me that's bizarre. But of course these people aren't going to say otherwise, now are they! 

It all makes me wonder what's going on behind the scenes. There's a battlefield taking place socially; a propaganda war fought in the collective psyche. The people in power wants us to think a certain way. Look at how spectacularly G4S's performance imploded and just how their CEO appeared as a rabbit in the headlights before politicians. He looked like he was sedated, yet he's the head of a big company. In terms of profits and size they aren't a penny ante outfit. 

Oh I'm sure this is all to conspiratorial. Forgive me, I have a cold. It's caused me to forget to put my tinfoil hat on. But in all seriousness the opportunity to have the army take over from G4S seems to have been a gift for the government (Labour would have been the same) in terms of the creeping militarisation of society.