Abstract
Sport has been a major strategic cultural practice used by Western allies to encourage citizens to support and “thank” their governments’ military actors. This increasingly visible intersection of sport and militarism occurred simultaneously alongside the development of propaganda departments by the American and Canadian governments seeking to use sport (and other popular cultural activities) to communicate consent for their respective military actors and actions. United Kingdom (UK) has witnessed many of these campaigns being replicated with a wide range of popular culture practices being utilized to provide public performances of support for its nation’s military personnel. This article critically analyzes “support the troops” rhetoric in UK by discussing a selection of official sporting and political articulations. Of significance is the extent to which those coordinating numerous support strategies for military-related violence (and its political rationale) have incorporated the language and symbolism of UK military-related remembrance, which historically has been viewed as a sorrowful and sombre reflection on the mass slaughter of millions during two world wars. The significance and centrality of on-the-surface-apolitical communication in and of sport as a form of ideological inculcation is illustrated.
Highlights
Sport has been a major strategic cultural practice used by Western allies to encourage citizens to support and “thank” their governments’ military actors
Many of the aforementioned examples [of militarism being venerated in Britain] are banal and perhaps as a result of this and the hegemonic power to render them apolitical, have witnessed no major dissention. . . . this opens up the debate to consider the hegemonic power to contain resistance in both popular and high cultural activities where the political is embedded as the banal and where resistance is predetermined as poor taste. (Kelly, 2013, p. 730)
Even when sport is widely accepted as being politicized in relation to United Kingdom (UK) militarism and remembrance, resistance remains contained as a result of such causes and symbols representing ceremonially sombre significations which dissuade dissenters for fear of being branded unpatriotic, anti-democratic and/or disrespectful as James McLean and supporters of Celtic FC experienced
Summary
Sport has been a major strategic cultural practice used by Western allies to encourage citizens to support and “thank” their governments’ military actors This increasingly visible intersection of sport and militarism occurred simultaneously alongside the development of propaganda departments by the American and Canadian governments seeking to use sport (and other popular cultural activities) to communicate consent for their respective military actors and actions. In tandem with the US and Canada, this multiagency collection of practices positions sport as a key cultural arena in which similar and apparently coordinated messages of support the troops are being expressed Illustrating this strategy, one of the many newly invented sport–military partnerships to emerge during this period was Tickets For Troops, which facilitates the gifting of tickets to military personnel for sporting and cultural events. In helping with its UK launch, British Lance Corporal Johnson Beharry explained his interpretation of the partnership’s significance and meaning: This is a fantastic idea and it is heartening and uplifting for any serving soldier or exsoldier to know that people really appreciate the work they do and this is a brilliant way for demonstrating respect for our Armed Forces. (cited in Sports Journalists’ Association, 2009)
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