Ad from The Washington Post, February 1, 2005
Portrait of a Patriot
His job: defend freedom.
His challenge: be ready for anything, anywhere, any time.
When you meet the men and women who serve America in the military and government, you find the strength and character of this nation. You find courage, commitment and the enduring belief that the best thing of all is what matters most. Freedom.
Lockheed Martin
We never forget who we're working for™
Lockheed Martin doesn't have a product to sell you. At least, not one that you can pick up at the local hardware store. What it's selling is, of course, an aesthetic, a way to experience the world that – if successful in getting a foothold – will guarantee their continuing profitability. The product is cool fascismo, and while you don't have to pay for it up front, don't be fooled into thinking that it doesn't have a price.
Cool fascismo is nothing new. It all comes down to that well-worn path between sex and death. The formula is simple, and familiar. Make struggle seem erotic. Tease out whatever is intensely aesthetic about conflict and warfare. Throw in a little bit of good, old-fashioned machismo. And then dress it all up in the celebration of heroism, which naturally also requires scorn for the sissified and weak.
Sometimes it's really nothing more than an edgy, slightly dangerous way to sell sexy clothes. But if the 20th century taught us anything, repeatedly, it's that modern economies of scale, as guided by corporate and military interests, can quickly transform "slightly dangerous" into all-out catastrophic. What's worrying about cool fascismo is not that it's a sexy way to sell clothes, but rather how easily it can become a sexy way to sell a perpetual state of domination and war.
