SALON

Jennifer Foote Sweeney

Tuesday, Dec 11, 2001 8:39 PM UTC

All quiet on the homefront

Today's wartime propaganda suggests normalcy and consumption, a far cry from the government's campaign during World War II, which called upon Americans to completely change their way of life.

By

Topics:

All quiet on the homefront

So far, America’s wartime propaganda has been relentlessly innocuous. Ad exec Charlotte Beers, appointed undersecretary of state for public affairs and public diplomacy, has focused on spin rather than sacrifice, emphasizing that we are battling terrorism, not Afghanistan or Islam, and reassuring nervous Americans with a message that is both familiar and undemanding. Rather than ask for any specific action or support from civilians, the federally funded ad campaign seeks to improve national self-esteem through simple images and spare meditations on pride and normalcy. An early series of TV spots by the nonprofit Ad Council, entitled “I am an American,” consists of seamless video montages of people — either attractive, heartwarming or inspiring — who face the camera one by one and say, “I am an American.” In another series, Americans are encouraged by celebrities not to be terrified, to go on living their lives. (In one, Tommy Lasorda suggests buying tickets to a ballgame and a foot-long hot dog.)

War-related solicitations from the private sector have been similarly bland, rarely asking for much more than uniting and standing, the wearing of ribbons and the flying of flags. Even the more aggressive efforts, such as San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown’s “America: Open for Business” campaign, ask not for sacrifice but self-indulgence (an open-ended shopping spree) with a grandiose excuse (avoiding recession during wartime). The image for this tremendously popular campaign, a shopping bag made with the words of the slogan, is a celebration of consumption. “The poster says to continue to do what we do — buy things,” its designer, Craig Frazier, told a reporter.

But buying things is not what we have always done, at least not in wartime. During World War II, in fact, we did exactly the opposite. For four years, ordinary Americans entered into a pact with their government, their community and themselves, vowing to do what was necessary to support our troops and win the war. It was a nationwide collaboration that transcended party lines and personal comfort. And civilian efforts — to conserve fuel, save cans, grow vegetables, use less of everything from sugar to razor blades — changed, at least for the period of the war, the way Americans lived.

The most striking emblem of this national commitment to sacrifice for a higher cause was the war poster. By turns humorous and gritty, government-issue World War II war posters reflect a time in American history when patriotism was at once passionate and deeply personal.

As the extraordinary outpouring of generosity that followed the Sept. 11 attacks proved, many Americans are searching for a cause that the nation can rally around. Millions of civilians already have made financial sacrifices to donate $353 million to funds for the families of rescuers who died on Sept. 11. Many remain poised to fight terrorism by any means necessary. Others are searching for inspiration. Being asked to shop more doesn’t really satisfy this hunger.

So it’s difficult, looking at the stirring posters of that earlier war, not to feel that our leaders are missing a historic opportunity to ask Americans to support causes that would not only produce tangible policy benefits, but would bring the nation together. A campaign asking citizens to conserve fuel, for example, would strengthen the country’s position in the current engagement against terrorism and liberate America from its risky reliance on foreign oil — while helping restore a civic culture that is increasingly frayed.

Without a world war and a full national mobilization, it is unlikely that the nation’s leaders will call for Americans to do any more than remain calm. But the posters from the civilian war effort that transformed the nation 60 years ago remain fascinating and inspiring — proof that ordinary people, when asked to sacrifice in a time of crisis, will heed the call.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 0 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

Jennifer Foote Sweeney, CMT, formerly a Salon editor, is a massage therapist in northern California, practicing on staff at the Institutes for Health and Healing in San Francisco and Larkspur, and on the campuses of the Alta Bates Summit Medical Center in Berkeley.

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: Chekhov's story mirrors Russia's own

Recommendations