War Fetishism In Various Forms
I'm going to suggest you to click on the link below for two reasons.
1) It's a very interesting review of a video game that points out a lot about the way that Americans worship the activities of soldiers in World War II. Be advised the review contains the f-word mentioned more than once.
2) I heard someone going on the other day on talk radio about the bombing of Hiroshima. This person spent a lot of time talking about how great it was and how necessary it was in order to prevent further loss of life. And I was struck yet again by the concerted attempt to normalize horrific acts in order to justify them for use in the future. This normalization of the use of horrific weapons, as if they were equivalent to conventional weapons because they killed a similar number of people, misses the point. There is a qualitative difference to a nuclear weapon and not just because of the radioactivity. In our imagination the mushroom cloud looms larger than photos of bombed cities and firestorms.
When we lose sight of the horrors of war, of torture and destruction of entire cities, we can more easily consider unleashing more war.
Link to The Escapist Magazine review of MOH Airborne. The reviewer is Yahtzee.
oh and h/t to Greg Saunders at The Talent Show for the link.
1) It's a very interesting review of a video game that points out a lot about the way that Americans worship the activities of soldiers in World War II. Be advised the review contains the f-word mentioned more than once.
2) I heard someone going on the other day on talk radio about the bombing of Hiroshima. This person spent a lot of time talking about how great it was and how necessary it was in order to prevent further loss of life. And I was struck yet again by the concerted attempt to normalize horrific acts in order to justify them for use in the future. This normalization of the use of horrific weapons, as if they were equivalent to conventional weapons because they killed a similar number of people, misses the point. There is a qualitative difference to a nuclear weapon and not just because of the radioactivity. In our imagination the mushroom cloud looms larger than photos of bombed cities and firestorms.
When we lose sight of the horrors of war, of torture and destruction of entire cities, we can more easily consider unleashing more war.
Link to The Escapist Magazine review of MOH Airborne. The reviewer is Yahtzee. Yahtzee is a British-born, currently Australian-based writer and gamer with a sweet hat and a chip on his shoulder. When he isn't talking very fast into a headset mic he also designs freeware adventure games and does the occasional feature for Australia's Hyper Magazine. His personal site is www.fullyramblomatic.com.
oh and h/t to Greg Saunders at The Talent Show for the link.
2 Comments:
Hi Spocko!
Great link and great review of a serious piece of propaganda.
Who knew that Pokemon was so evil?
"Nintendo's smash hit Pokemon series earned a ban not for its devastating addictiveness or terrible TV show spinoffs, but for promoting Zionism. Who'd do something like that? That Mecca of religious tolerance, Saudi Arabia, that's who. The Islamic state's religious authorities handed down a ban on all Pokemon material in 2001 over the game's use of six-pointed Star of David symbols and alleged encouragement of gambling. Pikachu, I ban you!" Yahoo! Games
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