1.About Our January 24th #WWIII Episode
On the January 24th episode of Sekai e Hasshin! SNS Eigojutsu, we talked about #WWIII.
On January 3rd, a United States drone strike near Baghdad International Airport killed Qasem Soleimani, the Iranian major general of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. In the ensuing days, tensions rose between the U.S. and Iran, and fears of an impending World War III resulted in #WWIII trending on Twitter.
Looking at the #WWIII social media posts, it’s clear that many of them were more concerned about being clever or ironic than about seriously addressing the issue.
I’m glad #WWIII is happening because living through a world war was at the top of my new year resolutions list!
Many of the posts were accompanied by gifs and other internet memes.
When I hear explosives while I’m sleeping and realize it’s not New Year’s Day anymore #WWIII
Many will look at these posts and likely take the view that these users are ignorantly treating #WWIII like a joke, that their messing around is disrespectful to American soldiers who are currently in the Middle East or other field of battle.
In this column I will consider #WWIII and what it says about the mindset of Generation Z.
2.The U.S. Draft
#WorldWarThreeDraft was another hashtag that was trending alongside #WWIII on January 3rd. Widespread fears of a new draft led to a spike in people trying to access the Selective Service website, resulting in the website crashing.
Due to the spread of misinformation, our website is experiencing high traffic volumes at this time. If you are attempting to register or verify registration, please check back later today as we are working to resolve this issue. We appreciate your patience.
— Selective Service (@SSS_gov) January 3, 2020
Many of the draft-related tweets also take a jokey or ironic tone. Take these, for example, where users contemplate the ways they might be able to dodge the draft.
When I find out the military won’t draft me if I am overweight #WWIII
me disguising myself as a dog to avoid the draft for world war
In actuality, the U.S. draft was abolished in 1973 as the Vietnam War was winding down. In 1980, however, following the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan, President Jimmy Carter reinstated the Selective Service System, requiring all males between 18 and 25 residing in America to register. If the draft itself was ever reinstated, people would be drafted from that list.
Many American men register to the Selective Service database when they apply for college financial aid. Failing to register can result in five-year imprisonment or a $250,000 fine, but only 20 people have been prosecuted under the law since 1980. Instead, most people who fail to register end up having great difficulty obtaining financial aid and government benefits in the future.
After the Selective Service website went back on line, it tweeted the following:
The Selective Service System is conducting business as usual. In the event that a national emergency necessitates a draft, Congress and the President would need to pass official legislation to authorize a draft. pic.twitter.com/M4tY2dLoX1
— Selective Service (@SSS_gov) January 3, 2020
3.Millennial Anxiety About the Draft Post-9/11
In terms of internet trends, World War III is not exactly new. WWIII memes began appearing in April 2017 following rising tensions between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Will President Trump start World War III with North Korea? https://t.co/kAqMk8EB8N pic.twitter.com/BsDls5pJXA
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) April 15, 2017
In the beginning of August 2017, President Trump strongly criticized North Korea for its nuclear program, and threatened to unleash “fire and fury" if the country endangered the U.S. People then took to the internet to research and post about “World War III" and “Armageddon".
Nuclear attack. World War III. Armageddon. What people researched after Trump's North Korea threat https://t.co/5ROGGZQI0z pic.twitter.com/dIzKopSkFB
— USA TODAY (@USATODAY) August 9, 2017
Going back even further, the nuclear arms race that took place following World War II made the threat of nuclear war feel realer than it had ever been before. Tensions were rising between the U.S. and the Soviet Union (in what is called the Cold War), and the apprehension in the air was so great that many Americans even built nuclear fallout shelters in their backyards. The fear reached a critical moment with the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Concern about the draft is also nothing new; young generations have been concerned about the draft ever since President Jimmy Carter reinstated the Selective Service System in 1980. When the 9/11 attacks rocked the U.S. in 2001, the fear became so real that our history and civics teachers had to take time away from the curriculum to explain to us about what it means to live under threat of war.
That being said, it is true that 9/11 was a turning point of sorts when it came to fear of war and the draft. The reason is that 9/11 was the first time in U.S. history that mainland U.S. had suffered such a large-scale attacked by a foreign adversary. It resulted in a wakeup call of sorts—the realization that Americans were no longer safe at home. Many of the students around me expressed concern that a draft was a very real possibility.
4.Digital Natives Have Become Numb to War
People often talk about how Japan is experiencing heiwa-boke (numb to peace), the idea that they’ve become so accustomed to not being involved in any wars that the people have come to take peace for granted. If that is true, then perhaps we should say that the U.S. is experiencing sensou-boke—the people have become numb to war.
Taking a step back, why does the U.S. always seem to be involved in an armed conflict somewhere? If, as President Donald Trump and many other say, the U.S. has the world’s greatest military, equipped with the world’s most advanced weaponry, why has the U.S. been unable to obtain a decisive victory in any war since the end of World War II (when it thoroughly defeated the Japanese)?
Maybe it’s bad strategy, or maybe the idea of bringing democracy to other countries is futile to begin with. Maybe certain presidents have been hesitant to appear weak by withdrawing troops. All of these reasons may be true, but the main reason why America is always fighting a war is because it profits the military industrial complex. The military industrial complex is an informal alliance between the nation’s military and the defense industry that supplies it; it exerts a powerful influence on public policy. The weapons made by the defense industry are useless stockpiled—they must be used. And if world peace were to actually happen, those companies would be out of business. As long as the military-industrial complex exists, the U.S. will always be fighting a war somewhere.
And let’s not forget everything that’s been happening within the U.S. The Columbine High School massacre rocked the nation in 1999, and school shootings and mass shootings in general have been increasing every year since. The Gun Violence Archive has reported that there were 417 mass shootings in 2019, the highest on record. (The GVA defines a mass shooting as where four or more people are shot, not including the shooter). Generation Z lives with the fear that a mass shooting can occur at any time, any place.
Many have also started questioning the role of violent movies and video games in fostering a culture where mass shootings occur. While movies and video games are only part of the picture and do not in and of themselves lead to violent behavior, we must acknowledge the fact that they do numb us to violence and war. Add onto that the fact that we are inundated with news and images about war and terrorism on a daily basis, and you can start to see why people would start to react to the prospect of war in odd ways.
Taken in this light, the #WWIII posts are not so much a reflection of ignorance and disrespect as they are the product of a generation that has become numb to war. Internet memes are their escapist entertainment.
