We’d like to see the rest of – here’s Paglen’s description:
Military culture is filled with a totemic visual language consisting of symbols and insignia that signify everything from various unit and command affiliations to significant events, and noteworthy programs. A typical uniform will sport patches identifying its wearer’s job, program affiliation, achievements and place within the military hierarchy. These markers of identity and program heraldry begin to create a peculiar symbolic regime when they depict one’s affiliation with what defense-industry insiders call the “black world†– the world of classified programs, projects, and places, whose outlines, even existence, are deeply-held secrets. Nonetheless, the Pentagon’s “black world†is replete with the rich symbolic language that characterizes other, less obscure, military activities.
Paglen’s onto something. In our (limited) experience of this culture – some of this culture actually has some humor – in the choice of cover names, for instance, which are inside jokes. (We have a couple in mind that we think are pretty clever, but are hard-pressed to think of one we can discuss publicly and responsibly). This doesn’t, of course, detract in the slightest from the coolness of what Paglen has done
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