War of the Roses

This past week was the Rose Festival. This is a big week long Festival that happens throughout the city to sort of "kick off the summer".

Some highlights include a fireworks display over the water, a nighttime parade through downtown, a more traditional parade through downtown during the day, a big carnival with rides, animals and everything else you would expect in a carnival and a few fleets of sailors.

The whole Rose Festival thing was nice. The whole city gets into. It's the 'water cooler' talk, if you will.

But Fleet Week got me thinking.

There is no shortage of females out here that were out of their gourds excited about the prospect of seeing men in military uniforms. But one really has to wonder why this is. Is there something inherent about the outfit itself? Are men attracted to the profession inherently more attractive?
Is it just a novelty?

Assuming that the sentiment is genuine, and I believe that it is, I really have only one conclusion that I can draw.

I believe that this obsession with a man in a uniform is on par or equal to men being obsessed with Halo, ultimate fighting, first person shooter games. So on and so forth.

That is to say that it is the fetishization of violence.

That uniform represents something. Something very clear and very distinct. The uniform, at its heart, represents violence. Anything else that it is purported to represent is simply an added value judgement. The idea that the U.S. military is somehow inherently 'good' or 'just' or what have you is no more than subjective musing.

People know this. Even if they are not actively conscious of this everyone must know it at their core.

The attraction of the uniform is an attraction to violence. That uniform represents in the hearts and minds of every man, woman and child the potential to unleash violence upon you or someone else in your name.

Not much else.

In other news, I don't really care for first person shooter games anymore. I wouldn't mind a Wii. But we don't have that kind of money. And won't for sometime.