Take the Skinheads Bowling
2002-10-19 � 11:09 a.m.

Some things have been bothering me lately.

I received the following email yesterday. It was sent to the entire College -- every single person that has an email address received this email.

Hi all,

A new video game has shown up on the 100 level of the Sylvania CC building. The game has 2 attached pistols and involves a lot of loud shooting. Anyone using the men's bathroom has to walk within 2 feet of the game.

I find it disgusting to walk by this machine when it is in use. The values associated with this game are completely antithetical to those espoused by our community and being subjected to this violence in view of today's current events is downright offensive.

Could whomever is responsible for this machine please remove it.

"S"

I had to bite my electronic tongue to keep from firing off a blistering response, though I would have been prudent enough not to send such a thing to the entire college, unlike this dork. He is obviously trying to spark some sort of righteous anger and debate amongst the faculty and staff of the college...and he's being lazy -- if he wanted to find out who to ask to get the machine removed, it would have taken him less time to locate that information than it did for him to write his email.

This makes me seethe.

Since this guy is offended, we must all be offended, right? Or, since he's offended, we should all agree that this game should go so that he can be more comfortable?

His justifications are ludicrous as well. He maintains that the game is antithetical to our community values...not recognizing (or willfully ignoring) that it's only as he interprets them. It's not antithetical to my values, and I'm a part of his community (though it galls me to no end). The idea of "community values" is one of those nebulous, undefined things that paves the way for censorship and oppression -- and just because a community embraces certain values doesn't make those values right. Then to claim that "current events" make this even more urgent is just sickening. If it's right or wrong, shouldn't it always be right or wrong? Whether it is appropriate or not is a different matter -- but that's not what he's saying. He's saying it is wrong (unless I'm reading this incorrectly -- but to me, when you say something "disgusts" you, you probably don't mean that it's just inappropriate).

Most likely the game is plain too loud and he can hear it in his office, so he is using this argument as an excuse to get rid of the thing. You know what? I'd respect that reason a whole lot more.

Then there was a report on the local news the other night that directly followed all the "stories" about the sniper attacks in Washington D.C. It focused on a local business not too far from where I live that has a pile of computers and allows people to play multiplayer computer games over a LAN.

Now, I don't watch the news. I get my news from the radio (primarily NPR), because the radio isn't as bad about pandering and fanning the flames of paranoia. This was the first time I had watched any local news broadcast in years.

And I was disgusted.

They sent a "reporter" -- he would have been more at home behind a pulpit, I think -- to stand outside this business, and repeatedly point out a sign in the window that reads "Snipers Welcome" and the silhouette of a SWAT team member painted on the side of the building.

They hammered on it and hammered on it, trying so hard to make this controversial. Every fourth or fifth word was "sniper" -- he even referred to the silhouette (which seemed to be holding some kind of sub machinegun) as a "sniper" three or four times, which it quite obviously was not to anyone who knew better. But to people who don't...

He said the same thing about a half dozen times, then they went inside. Oh great goodness! There are people in here playing games with terrorists and counter-terrorists in them! The moral depths to which they have sunk, not to mention the owner of this establishment, who is plainly Satan in disguise and no better than a drug dealer or rapist, out to pervert the minds of our youth. (They were playing Counter-Strike, and if you've been around this diary for long, you know that I was once a big, big fan of that game, though I don't play it much any more.)

They talked to the owner, who said frankly that he didn't see a problem with the sign or the business he was running, and that besides the news crew, no one had ever even said anything about the sign. Then they interviewed some gamer (no doubt the scruffiest, most frighteningly Aryan one they could find), who told the camera that these games were "just for fun." They cut at the last part so he was doing a voice-over of some SWAT guy gunning down a terrorist in-game. The impression was "It's fun to kill people!"

Oh that's classy, news folk. Classy.

So then, after they cut back to the studio, like an afterthought they mention that yeah, the "snipers welcome" sign has been in the window for about a year. A year.

I also heard on the radio the other day an interview with the Mayor of Baltimore, who is trying to get the Federal Government to sanction the usage of the National Guard to police the streets.

What the fuck?!? What is going on here?

It's all about the sniper in the news of course, and that's what the police and FBI and everyone in law enforcement is focusing on, but interestingly enough, though nine people have been shot by the sniper, twelve people have been shot and killed in the inner-city of Washington D.C. in the same time period. Hello, can anyone say "disparity of effort"?

And all the while we get blatantly exploitative "news" reports from the local media outlets, and we get chuckle-heads like the math professor who sent that email, completely unable to recognize the reality of the current situation in America which is one of FEAR and PARANOIA (being fanned by the media, of course), placing the blame on whatever is handy and high-profile, like a stand-up arcade game or the sign in the window of a game store. Pretty soon that math professor will probably be calling for the National Guard to come out and police him.

I can't wait for Bowling for Columbine. It isn't playing here yet, and it may not, but if I don't see someone being sane about this stuff soon, I may crack. Check out the Flick Filosopher's review of Bowling for Columbine here. It's really good (as are all or her reviews, I think), and it highlights some portions of the film that are more applicable today than ever before (probably even while Roger Moore was filming it).

*growling and grumbling*

-t

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