Selling the Rope to Hang Yourself
Complaining about anti-American messages in the media is rather like urinating on a prairie fire: it may provide you with a transient sense of satisfaction, but it's dangerous and ultimately futile.
I was given something yesterday, a link to a gameplay video for the new "Bioshock: Infinite" game, which left a very bad taste in my mouth.
Discussion behind the cut, for those whom this would bore.
First, a link to an overall description of the game:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BioShock_Infinite
Second, the video I saw:
A few stipulations for the record:
(1) Yes, the US in the 1900-1912 had some views on nationalism and race that are either boggling or wince-inducing today, which probably reached a crescendo in the 1917-1918 period that not even 1942-1945 could match. This includes the use of Washington and national symbols like the Liberty Bell.
(2) No comment is made on the cinematic or playability quality of the game.
My own feelings on this:
(a) There are going to be one hell of a lot of viewers, especially abroad, who are going to get a lot of joy about shooting up Americans and destroying American symbols.
(b) To my mind, the creators of the game are exploiting these symbols for their own ends. It isn't even the ends of ideology -- simply to make a buck. Cf. the quote attributed to Lenin (I think -- it might have been Trotskii) that capitalists will sell the rope used to hang themselves.
(c) I think a lot of folks are going to see this as a statement as this is the way America is today, in 2010. Note the quotation from a game review where the reviewer thought some of the speeches were like the "race-baiting speeches" of (wait for it, the Liberal Unholy Trinity) Beck, Palin and Paul.
(d) There were at least two "clanks" I saw in the video: one was about guns. Granted, steampunk is by its nature anachronistic, but this to my mind is a not terribly subtle linking of racism and those who advocate gun rights -- and it's also ahistoric, gun control laws not being a feature of discussion until the early 1930s and not a first-rank topic until the 1960s. The use of "Saltonstall" for the ultra-nationalist spokesman was also noticeable -- a longtime Massachusetts GOP family. Never mind that in the teens and twenties, some of the really outre comments on race (especially) or religion came from the likes of (Democrats) "Pitchfork Ben" Tillman, "Big Jim" Folsom, or Ted Bilbo.
(e) Even if we accept the notion of a critique of ultra-nationalism, was it, strictly speaking, necessary to single out one country, given that these were attitudes held by a large number of nations, and not just Western European ones, either (cf. Japanese views on Chinese and Koreans)?
(f) I wonder if the game's writers are aware of the Civil Rights Acts of 1958 and 1964, Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, or the beaming presence of the Messrs. Sharpton, Jackson, Rangel, Watt, et alia. For that matter, how about some of the folks playing this game? The annual farrago of racial guilt we go through every February, I'm not optimistic about that.
Yes, I hear the cry: "But this sort of self-criticism is what makes this country great!" I think this crosses over the line from self-criticism to self-loathing, and if a country's greatness is dependent on how harshly you run it down, God help us.
(Insert arguments here about how insert foreign country here is treated in other shoot 'em up games or Tom Clancy or the like.)
It's also not a particularly venturesome intellectual journey, given the millions of gallons of ink that have been spilled in universities over the last 30 years on the topic of "Oooo, how awful and bad the United States is!" (Stated by tenured professors pulling down six-figure salaries, mark you.) Also not one likely to subject the creators to any sort of retribution or punishment. Nope, they'll be cashing in their stock options from this.
Interesting to note that the original Bioshock was a critique of objectivism, the philosophy associated with Ayn Rand.
I await a dystopic game based on Moscow 1938, Nanking 1937, Rwanda 1993, Kampuchea 1977, Peking 1960, Saigon 1976, Berlin 1960, Havana 1980, Tehran any time after 1980, or so forth. Given the Constructivist and science-fiction flowering in Russia in the 1920s, it would seem fruitful territory for this sort of thing. But I imagine I'll be waiting a damn long time before I see any game that goes after *those* sacred cows.
I was given something yesterday, a link to a gameplay video for the new "Bioshock: Infinite" game, which left a very bad taste in my mouth.
Discussion behind the cut, for those whom this would bore.
First, a link to an overall description of the game:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BioShock_Infinite
Second, the video I saw:
Click to viewA few stipulations for the record:
(1) Yes, the US in the 1900-1912 had some views on nationalism and race that are either boggling or wince-inducing today, which probably reached a crescendo in the 1917-1918 period that not even 1942-1945 could match. This includes the use of Washington and national symbols like the Liberty Bell.
(2) No comment is made on the cinematic or playability quality of the game.
My own feelings on this:
(a) There are going to be one hell of a lot of viewers, especially abroad, who are going to get a lot of joy about shooting up Americans and destroying American symbols.
(b) To my mind, the creators of the game are exploiting these symbols for their own ends. It isn't even the ends of ideology -- simply to make a buck. Cf. the quote attributed to Lenin (I think -- it might have been Trotskii) that capitalists will sell the rope used to hang themselves.
(c) I think a lot of folks are going to see this as a statement as this is the way America is today, in 2010. Note the quotation from a game review where the reviewer thought some of the speeches were like the "race-baiting speeches" of (wait for it, the Liberal Unholy Trinity) Beck, Palin and Paul.
(d) There were at least two "clanks" I saw in the video: one was about guns. Granted, steampunk is by its nature anachronistic, but this to my mind is a not terribly subtle linking of racism and those who advocate gun rights -- and it's also ahistoric, gun control laws not being a feature of discussion until the early 1930s and not a first-rank topic until the 1960s. The use of "Saltonstall" for the ultra-nationalist spokesman was also noticeable -- a longtime Massachusetts GOP family. Never mind that in the teens and twenties, some of the really outre comments on race (especially) or religion came from the likes of (Democrats) "Pitchfork Ben" Tillman, "Big Jim" Folsom, or Ted Bilbo.
(e) Even if we accept the notion of a critique of ultra-nationalism, was it, strictly speaking, necessary to single out one country, given that these were attitudes held by a large number of nations, and not just Western European ones, either (cf. Japanese views on Chinese and Koreans)?
(f) I wonder if the game's writers are aware of the Civil Rights Acts of 1958 and 1964, Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, or the beaming presence of the Messrs. Sharpton, Jackson, Rangel, Watt, et alia. For that matter, how about some of the folks playing this game? The annual farrago of racial guilt we go through every February, I'm not optimistic about that.
Yes, I hear the cry: "But this sort of self-criticism is what makes this country great!" I think this crosses over the line from self-criticism to self-loathing, and if a country's greatness is dependent on how harshly you run it down, God help us.
(Insert arguments here about how insert foreign country here is treated in other shoot 'em up games or Tom Clancy or the like.)
It's also not a particularly venturesome intellectual journey, given the millions of gallons of ink that have been spilled in universities over the last 30 years on the topic of "Oooo, how awful and bad the United States is!" (Stated by tenured professors pulling down six-figure salaries, mark you.) Also not one likely to subject the creators to any sort of retribution or punishment. Nope, they'll be cashing in their stock options from this.
Interesting to note that the original Bioshock was a critique of objectivism, the philosophy associated with Ayn Rand.
I await a dystopic game based on Moscow 1938, Nanking 1937, Rwanda 1993, Kampuchea 1977, Peking 1960, Saigon 1976, Berlin 1960, Havana 1980, Tehran any time after 1980, or so forth. Given the Constructivist and science-fiction flowering in Russia in the 1920s, it would seem fruitful territory for this sort of thing. But I imagine I'll be waiting a damn long time before I see any game that goes after *those* sacred cows.