Document Type
Article
Abstract
In this work I will present the Ethical Spectacle: Memorial in a Time of War, a model for increasing support for peace and the anti-war movement. This model achieves this goal by undermining support for war by presenting what Stephen Duncombe calls an “ethical spectacle” which confronts a population with both the reality and dire consequences of their nation’s military actions and the moral dilemma such circumstances present them with. Specifically, the Memorial in a Time of War successfully bridges the gap between the anti-war worldview and that of lesser informed Americans. The Memorial in a Time of War accomplishes this by conversing with its audience via iconic language/visual culture and utilizing fundamental levers of mind change, articulated by Howard Gardner, including redescriptions of patriotic iconography and the resonance provoked by dramatically publicizing the deadly consequences of war. Both redescriptions and resonance overcome fundamental resistances such as the association of patriotic fervor with pro-war sentiments, as well as the resistances created by the sheer physical distance between American citizens and the war, and the media’s failure to close this gap. Another important characteristic of the Memorial in a Time of War is that it is capable of overcoming what many believe is a corporate blockade of anti-war voices in the mainstream media. To fully explicate the theory this work will consider Duncombe’s notion of the “propaganda of the truth” or the “manufacture of dissent,” the AIDS Quilt as an archetype for the Memorial in a Time of War, and analyze the American Friends Service Committee’s exhibit, Eyes Wide Open: An Exhibition on the Human Cost of the War, as the embodiment of the Memorial in a Time of War.
Repository Citation
Nall, Jeff. "Ethical Spectacle: Memorial in a Time of War." Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture vol. 10, no. 3, 2010, pp. 1–22. https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/reconstruction/vol10/iss3/20