Brina Sylve
ASA 2- A02
April 25, 2015
Week 5
Sociologist, C. Wright Mills describes the Military Industrial Complex as the erosion of democratic ideals because of the rising military domain in politics and economics. Where military and political order has become centralized as it enters into each and every cranny of social structure, in other words: the military and violence becomes a way of life rather than a way to defeat an enemy that then becomes consumed by those within society.
Unfortunately, this complex has even translated into normalizing and fetishizing violence as argued by Darrel Hamamoto in their article "Empire of Death and the Plague of Civic Violence." To support this complex, Hamamoto details several known serial killers and how murder became a way for them to fulfill their fetish for subordinated flesh. What made the analysis all the more interesting (and gruesome) was how many of these serial killers had connections to the Vietnam War or other wars in Southeast Asia either by being veterans themselves or had family members who were apart of these wars and made people of color, especially women, their victims.
Overall, Hamamoto critiques the United States fetish and dependency on the military as the driving force behind America's obsession with and normalization of violence. While pointing out that more often then not the crimes become racialized towards Asians and Asian Americans as a way to materialize sexual fantasies or frustrations. In the end, Hamamoto erases the line between serial killers and the United States government, for the government and the serial killer are one and the same.
If anyone reads this, please watch the below video to answer the question:
Why has violence become so normalized within American society?
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