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Friday, July 6, 2007

The Flamboyant Symbol of Masculinity

posted by on July 6 at 15:56 PM

The first two paragraphs of a lovely review of AK47: the Story of the People’s Gun:

At the beginning of Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985), in which Sylvester Stallone takes on the entire North Vietnamese army with an AK47, an American colleague regards the weapon with scepticism: “A beat-to-shit AK? Every 12-year-old in ‘Nam’s got one of those.” Rambo looks pleased, slowly nods his meaty head, and laboriously masticates his reply: “Exactly.”

Unlike practically everything else in the film, Rambo’s choice of gun is historically accurate. American soldiers in Vietnam were equipped with the M16 rifle, invented by Eugene Stoner, which tended to malfunction if it was even sneezed on. When they came across the Chinese AKs of the fallen Viet Cong, they discovered that they still worked, even if they had been lying in the rain for weeks, so at every opportunity they abandoned their modern capitalist gun for a 25-year-old socialist one.

RamboIIIGun300.jpg

Power to the people! Our guns or our votes! When they knock down your front door, how are you going to come? With your hands on your head or the trigger of your gun?

farc-woman2.jpg

RSS icon Comments

1

...okay.

Posted by Mr. Poe | July 6, 2007 4:07 PM
2

Even after Our Side "won" the Cold War (thanks to Reagan, Rambo, and Red Dawn) the AK-47 remains the world's most popular weapon, proving that no matter which side wins in any war, the arms merchants always win.

Posted by flamingbanjo | July 6, 2007 4:20 PM
3

when they come for you chaz, itll be with butterfly nets, and you will fight them with words. WORDS!

Posted by Bellevue Ave | July 6, 2007 4:30 PM
4

I'm less into guns than I was at 18 when I discovered Hong Kong action movies. Guns are so much fun on film. They breathe fire and shine and make bad guys fly through the air, spraying blood like an ocean spray commercial. In real life though, they're annoying and disturbing. No matter how correctly you squeeze the trigger, the kick is somehow surprising and emotionally offensive, like a slap in the face. And the constant knowledge the thing could kill you or your friends if you slip up. It's not fun. Unless you're more into danger than I'll ever be.

Posted by christopher | July 6, 2007 4:35 PM
5

if you'd attached a jpg of veronica zemanova firing an AK47 topless, then this would be a deeply trenchant posting.

such jpgs exist. i've seen them. please rectify the situation quickly.

Posted by maxsolomon | July 6, 2007 4:42 PM
6

Rambo and The Clash in the same post? Charles Mudede just BLEW MY DAMN MIND.

Posted by Urs | July 6, 2007 4:44 PM
7
Posted by christopher | July 6, 2007 4:53 PM
8

thanks christopher!

charles, ALWAYS attach T & A to your posts.

Posted by maxsolomon | July 6, 2007 5:36 PM
9

Actually, Veronika is a sexy sexpot, but I think the girl he did post is cuter.

Posted by christopher | July 6, 2007 5:39 PM
10

The guy w/ the Steyr AUG Bullpup is going to dust the dude with the AK47 *or* the M16, every time. 600 yards vs. 100 yards. Expensive, but you get what you pay for. If John Rambo had been current on his "Guns&Ammo" subscription, he could have killed anonymous Vietnamese infantry and their Soviet puppet-masters twice as fast.

Posted by Big Sven | July 6, 2007 11:30 PM
11

Yawn. Guns are not empowering, and violence is largely a result of political insecurity. While you're high on philosophy Charles, read a copy of Hannah Arendt's "On Violence."

I like some guns and some tech, at least in the abstract (Michael Mann's police films give me a big hard on). But the idea that guns are liberating or empower the people is trite and played out. The people handing out the AKs to the masses, usually through forced conscription, usually end up using the same guns to oppress the masses once they're in power. I'm not a libertarian. I'm a socialist with Marxist leanings and believe that the North Vietnamese should have won, and I'm still saying that they created a repressive government.

On the domestic front, images of organizations like the Black Panthers with guns from the 1960s always dazzle and impress me. But soon, as the radical chic dissipates, I always see the kernel of the gang violence and crack wars of the 1980s. Along with the militarization of the inner city police, the endemic poverty, and the introduction of crack, the kind of fetishized violence and gun glamor of the 60s radicals helped introduce the idea of guns, both as a source of power and a means of enforcement, to black youth.

There is no gun of the people. Guns are neutral instruments used by capital on the right and ideology on the left to get what they want, and usually at the cost of life.

Oh, and sorry for calling you "stupid" on another post when I was drunk.

Posted by Jay | July 7, 2007 2:12 AM
12

@ Jay: Lol!

"Yawn." hehehe you're so smart Jay, I wish I could be as erudite and knowledgable as you.

Posted by Jay-Hayta' | July 7, 2007 12:22 PM
13

Jay-Hayta: and I wish I could be as sarcastic and snarky as you! Rock on, passive aggressive northwesterner!

Posted by Jay | July 7, 2007 3:42 PM

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