Starting to read the first (training) half of the 1987 Full Metal Jacket as a critique of the co-option of revolutionary energy into Generation X
The point of Joker is he’s the post-60s mentality so we identify with him and that means he’s a challenge to the system, man. But the thing about the Virgin Mary sequence is the system doesn’t really care if he’ll stand up for pre- or post-60s as long as he stands up, and will openly reject others to induct him, if that’s the way the wind’s blowing
Meanwhile the actual threat to the system is Pyle not for having a worked-out ideology but just not fitting to the needs of the state and the arc up to the blanket party is about Joker coming to identify against him and not against Gunnery Sergeant Hartman
And at the end of it all he does his mission and comes back but his men are ironically identifying with mass-market culture like the Mickey Mouse Show, that’ll show ‘em
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