Fall 1982, Issue 1

M*A*S*H – a viewpoint

By Josh Harris Koala Staff
M*A*S*H: An example of potent pro-war television.

Surprised aren't you. All these years you thought that M*A*S*H was your favorite anti-war show now you find that it is actually the greatest military commercial of all time.

Let us examine the facts.

Point one: in direct contrast to what Hawkeye and the gang may say, war appears to be

more fun and adventure, than death and devastation In other words, the typical viewer sees a group of people working in the military for a noble and adventurous cause.

Point two: M*A*S*H creates a positive image of the military. Sure they show a bunch of abnormal and disagreeable people who represent the regular Army. But they are trivial and not the people we care about. The regulars on the show are people we like. Thus a positiveimage of the military is created by the viewers emotional involvement in the characters that wear military uniforms.

Point three: M*A*S*H portrays the military as a place where one can be an individual. For Hawkeye the Army has no rules, at least none that he recognizes, he is his own man, not the Army's. Unfortunately individualism is the military's worst enemy; "Hawkeyes" just don't exist in the armed forces.

M*A*S*H is the 1970s version of Combat. The only difference between the shows of past years and M*A*S*H is that the audiences of today are much more sophisticated. Hence war and its image are not presented to us on a silver platter, instead we are lulled into believing that we are watching anti-war liberal television, when in fact we are actually watching effective pro-war propaganda.

And you thought you were liberal!