Reflections on Militarization

What strikes me most about the list I made at the beginning of the year is how many of the things I noted are related to what we studied in class. Of all the things on the list, the one that stands out is this laptop I saw advertised all over DC this summer. It was called the "Heavyweight" or something like that, and it was advertised as being made for people who need a tough laptop. One ad said something along the lines of, "We're not allowed to say this laptop was made for the Pentagon." I thought it was weird at the time only because there were so many ads, and because the ads were concentrated around the metro at the Pentagon stop and at the Captiol Hill stops, so it was clear who the intended audience was.

Now, having looked closely into the MIC, I realize that there are so many layers to that simple laptop ad. I think it was a Dell, too, and after reading the Matrix article, we know that Dell has one of the largest defense contracts of any company. It's crazy to think about how people who buy a laptop, whether they work for defense or not, are buying into militarization. It's unnerving to also think of how many people will buy that particular laptop because of its relationship to defense, not in spite of that.

In general this list, and this class, has made me hyper aware of militarization. I only wish that that knowledge weren't so overwhelming. The next step is to figure out a productive way to work with this new knowledge.