Tolerate this.

Oh. My. Stars.

I'm a fan of the Manic Street Preachers and I was familiar with this song, but I had never seen the video before.

Mother of pearl. This a triple serving of sanctimony with a side of narcissism that borders on the pornographic (euphemistically; video is SFW).

It also borders on self parody. Were it not for the subject matter, one could be forgiven for wondering if the video was a joke: now a close up shot of James Dean Bradfield practically licking his reflection; cut to the other prettyboys staring intently into the camera, running fingers through hair or generally pouting; cut to scene of drummer slowly, slowly strapping on oxygen mask... Yes, this is meant to be taken seriously. It's too pretentious not to be.

The song's inspiration comes from the Spanish Civil War (background here), but the video (I presume) is an admonitory of nuclear war. Between shots of the band in a sterile, quarantine-like environment (all is white and electric blue, a sensor device (Geiger counter?) runs along the neck of a guitar, the drums are wrapped in plastic, the walls are mirrored--suggesting two way glass, and (umbilical?) cables, attached to each musician, extend down from somewhere out of sight), the camera returns to a "nuclear" family in their bathing suits. While vaguely Asian in appearance, it is impossible to discern this as their faces have all been melted off. The Manics seem to be calling to mind the atomic bombs dropped on Japan (a-la their earlier song Enola/Alone).

No one who is not evil hopes to see another bomb or warhead detonated ever again. To create art that reminds us of the horror that nuclear weapons can unleash can be laudable, provided it doesn't morally equivocate or sympathize with the wrong camp. I'm not sure the Preachers are equivocating. If they are, it's modest enough that it doesn't bother me too much.

But I think they could have gotten the "message" such as it is across better if there had been less pretty posturing. Yes, I realize it's the pout shots that make their fans, particularly the females, watch.