War is Fun

Recently I heard the song Fun by Troye Sivan. It's a song about war, military recruiting techniques, and reasons of going to war. It reminded me a lot of what is being discussed in class during our unit on "The Things They Carried" and war. It mostly reminded me of "On the Rainy River" and the discussion surrounding that chapter.

The song is told from the point of view of a father trying to get his son to join the military. In the time of the Vietnam War many of the soldier's fathers were veterans of World War II and so going off to war was seen as noble. In "On the Rainy River" Tim O'Brien is conflicted about avoiding his draft notice because of how his family and friends at home will view him. The song touches on the subject of having to set "them" free and going to the war is what is needed to be done. The beginning of the song is persuasive in encouraging joining the military in talking about seeing the world, which was discussed as a motive to join the Vietnam War.

The song touches on the other sides of war. He uses the word "fun" to demonstrate irony but in "The Things They Carried" war can be seen as fun as part of the paradox.
There's a lyric " Just don't look them in the eyes, boy, you just gotta take their lives boy." That reminded me of "The Man I Killed" O'Brien just stares at the corpse of the man he kills and the star shaped hole in his face. As O'Brien is staring at the body he imagines a whole life that the man he killed possibly had. The lyric is saying do not humanize the enemy because your duty is to kill them.

I just really liked this song and it reminded me so much of "The Things They Carried" when I heard it. It also was kind of sad how the song was discussing issues of today's wars related so much to Vietnam. It makes me wonder how does the threat of terrorism compare with the threat of communism.