July 2011
43 posts
More Video Game Witch-Hunting
As expected, certain members of the mainstream media have already pointed the finger at video games after it was revealed that Anders Behring Breivik (a self-identified right-wing Christian conservative) was a player of Call of Duty and World of Warcraft before he decided to shoot and/or bomb over 90 people in Oslo, Norway.
It’s unsurprising how this tragedy has re-ignited the ludicrous moral panic aimed at computer games. It’s also unsurprising that there have been no criticisms of his religious and political affiliation, whose influence on his criminal act holds far more plausibility.
Still, regardless of the fact that he’s a conservative, gamer or Christian, his heinous act was arguably the product of a psychotic mind.
It’s ironic that a lot of the accusations levelled at computer games as an agent for violence originate from the Christian Right. If Christian political lobby groups such as the A.C.L. are so committed to subverting intellectual and social progress, I can only wonder why they are tolerated, and why there isn’t a powerful lobby dedicated to mitigating the influence of historical fiction and scientific fantasy in contemporary society (Creationists, and ‘Young-Earth’ folks, I’m looking at you).
A mentally-sound gamer is fully capable of distinguishing between on-screen renditions of violence and actual harmful violence. Additionally, most games are passive activities performed for few reasons other than the enjoyment.
It’s ironic, because this is more than I can say about most religions, whose adherents believe in highly-implausible fairy tales, and read from a book of historical fiction that compels action in the real world with scriptural (and anachronistically-illogical) justifications. All for the approval of an imaginary friend in the sky, and for boons in the afterlife… which probably doesn’t exist anyway.
What right do people such as these have to criticise or question the gamer’s grasp on reality?
If there’s one failing of individuals that I hate foremost above all else in this world, it’s hypocrisy.
Solitude is Bliss
Tame Impala
Tame Impala: Solitude is Bliss
Students Should Become Anarchists
- Chomsky: Anarchists try to identify power structures. They urge those exercising power to justify themselves. This justification does not succeed most of the time. Then anarchists work at unmasking and mastering the structures, whether they involve patriarchal families, a Mafia international system or the private tyrannies of the economy, the corporation.
- ZEIT Campus: What was the key experience that made you an anarchist?
- Chomsky: There was none. When I was twelve years old, I began to go to secondhand bookshops. Many of them were run by anarchists who came from Spain. Therefore it seemed very natural to me to be an anarchist.
- ZEIT Campus: Should all students become anarchists?
- Chomsky: Yes. Students should challenge authorities and join a long anarchist tradition.
- ZEIT Campus: "Challenge authorities" -- a liberal or a moderate leftist could accept that invitation.
- Chomsky: As soon as one identifies, challenges and overcomes illegitimate power, he or she is an anarchist. Most people are anarchists. What they call themselves doesn’t matter to me.
- ZEIT Campus: Who or what must challenge today’s student generation?
- Chomsky: This world is full of suffering, distress, violence and catastrophes. Students must decide: does something concern you or not? I say: look around, analyze the problems, ask yourself what you can do and set out on the work!
