The Real World? Turn off MTV and open your eyes people.
I should first note that this is meant to follow Alex's long post of a similar nature. I urge you to read both, despite their length because they discuss rather serious issues that are largely ignored in today's world.
Ladies and gents, we live in an incredibly priveleged time in which equality and acceptance reign supreme. Odds are, if you are reading this you know that this is BS in the first degree. The only question is whether you acknowledge this only through an abstract understanding of the concept or whether (and to what degree) you have experienced it first hand.
As to the druid rally that Alex and myself organized tonight, we began this whole thing with the most innocent of goals in mind. We half-jokingly gathered to "protest" for the equal treatment of druids. Spawned from inconveniences in the game we began jokingly comparing our plight to the civil rights movement here in the US. Well in a very short amount of time it degraded into something that resembled this simultaneously dark and light period in American history much more closely than I would have liked. As Alex pointed out these people assaulted us with an endless stream of unintelligible and unbased jabs. At one point I even politely asked any present to calmly engage us in an actual debate instead of shouting mindlessly in a manner befitting of a bigoted soul.
Now the real disturbing part of this whole situation, which Alex touched on in his post, is that this is not entirely limited to the realm of video games. This is really just a microcosm of sentiments of people in the world today. There's a lot of hate still out there a lot of which continues to stun and dismay me, and which I think a majority of the open minded people are sadly unaware of. The truth of the matter is that our world far more bigoted than our country would have us believe. So why is this thing not seen more openly on a regular basis? Political correctness is the way to go these days. You see the thing is, there are plenty of racists and sexists out there today but for the most part they know that being racist or sexist is not looked kindly upon, or they don’t even recognize what they do as racist/sexist. They know that if they make an openly racist comment in mixed they will get more than a few glares. Enter the anonymity of the internet. All of a sudden, thanks to the virtual world they’re in, people are no longer held responsible for their actions. People need not worry about holding back anymore, they can say what they want about what they want with no consequences of an earthly nature.
Which brings me to my point: these games merely offer a window into the true nature of these people. It is not that particularly racist people play games but rather that quite a few such people exist and they know they can do it online. I am with Alex 100% on this issue; it disgusts me and only aides my conviction that isolation from people is not an entirely bad thing.
This brings to mind one of the biggest issues I face every day at college. I don’t have a whole lot of friends there, or even people I feel comfortable talking to for that matter. The reason? In a way I am exactly like those bigots I previously described. I know that much of what I do (and don’t do for that matter) and enjoy is not especially popular or well accepted by mainstream culture. I’m not a huge fan of sports (or at least watching them), I don’t drink, do any drugs, I hate most mainstream TV with a vengeance, and popular society’s many propagated stereotypes occasionally bring me to contemplate the ultimate futility of mankind’s quest to better itself. Even art, the topic with which I have somehow managed to become associated with, turns me off in more ways than I care to mention.
Well here’s the issue, there are tons of people who’s main occupation in their free time is testing the limits of their body and stupidity (alcohol anyone?). There are, however, many people that don’t engage in what I deem rather stupid activities. The problem arises in that people who drink have a quick and easy place to gather and meet one another. The rest of us….don’t. We each sit around in our respective dorm rooms wishing we knew each other.
Anyway, I feel between Alex and myself we have given you more than enough reading material that I’m sure you’ll never bother to read. In the meantime I am even more set in my resolve to keep up these druid rallies if for nothing else than for what they parallel in the real world. And although I am far from sure I would like to think I would act similarly to such a situation in the real world. Because the Fortunes know that there are issues out there that need and deserve it. But I’ll save my long rant about the existence of racial and sexist stereotypes in today’s society for another time.
Ladies and gents, we live in an incredibly priveleged time in which equality and acceptance reign supreme. Odds are, if you are reading this you know that this is BS in the first degree. The only question is whether you acknowledge this only through an abstract understanding of the concept or whether (and to what degree) you have experienced it first hand.
As to the druid rally that Alex and myself organized tonight, we began this whole thing with the most innocent of goals in mind. We half-jokingly gathered to "protest" for the equal treatment of druids. Spawned from inconveniences in the game we began jokingly comparing our plight to the civil rights movement here in the US. Well in a very short amount of time it degraded into something that resembled this simultaneously dark and light period in American history much more closely than I would have liked. As Alex pointed out these people assaulted us with an endless stream of unintelligible and unbased jabs. At one point I even politely asked any present to calmly engage us in an actual debate instead of shouting mindlessly in a manner befitting of a bigoted soul.
Now the real disturbing part of this whole situation, which Alex touched on in his post, is that this is not entirely limited to the realm of video games. This is really just a microcosm of sentiments of people in the world today. There's a lot of hate still out there a lot of which continues to stun and dismay me, and which I think a majority of the open minded people are sadly unaware of. The truth of the matter is that our world far more bigoted than our country would have us believe. So why is this thing not seen more openly on a regular basis? Political correctness is the way to go these days. You see the thing is, there are plenty of racists and sexists out there today but for the most part they know that being racist or sexist is not looked kindly upon, or they don’t even recognize what they do as racist/sexist. They know that if they make an openly racist comment in mixed they will get more than a few glares. Enter the anonymity of the internet. All of a sudden, thanks to the virtual world they’re in, people are no longer held responsible for their actions. People need not worry about holding back anymore, they can say what they want about what they want with no consequences of an earthly nature.
Which brings me to my point: these games merely offer a window into the true nature of these people. It is not that particularly racist people play games but rather that quite a few such people exist and they know they can do it online. I am with Alex 100% on this issue; it disgusts me and only aides my conviction that isolation from people is not an entirely bad thing.
This brings to mind one of the biggest issues I face every day at college. I don’t have a whole lot of friends there, or even people I feel comfortable talking to for that matter. The reason? In a way I am exactly like those bigots I previously described. I know that much of what I do (and don’t do for that matter) and enjoy is not especially popular or well accepted by mainstream culture. I’m not a huge fan of sports (or at least watching them), I don’t drink, do any drugs, I hate most mainstream TV with a vengeance, and popular society’s many propagated stereotypes occasionally bring me to contemplate the ultimate futility of mankind’s quest to better itself. Even art, the topic with which I have somehow managed to become associated with, turns me off in more ways than I care to mention.
Well here’s the issue, there are tons of people who’s main occupation in their free time is testing the limits of their body and stupidity (alcohol anyone?). There are, however, many people that don’t engage in what I deem rather stupid activities. The problem arises in that people who drink have a quick and easy place to gather and meet one another. The rest of us….don’t. We each sit around in our respective dorm rooms wishing we knew each other.
Anyway, I feel between Alex and myself we have given you more than enough reading material that I’m sure you’ll never bother to read. In the meantime I am even more set in my resolve to keep up these druid rallies if for nothing else than for what they parallel in the real world. And although I am far from sure I would like to think I would act similarly to such a situation in the real world. Because the Fortunes know that there are issues out there that need and deserve it. But I’ll save my long rant about the existence of racial and sexist stereotypes in today’s society for another time.