1up-man-ship
So here’s to the trivialisation of war by the media.
I heard someone on TV the other night refer to soldiers being fragged in Iraq. For those of you that don’t know what it means, and why I’m so disturbed by its use, look here.
The problem I have with its usage is the temporary nature of ‘death’ that it infers; that you can respawn, come back and carry on… and at the same time, so can the people you’re shooting at. Life is not so robust.
Not that I’m entirely innocent. I used to make video games that featured the backdrop of war and had people shooting other people, people dying and coming back like the ressurection. I felt uncomfortable at the time and I’m not proud now.
But at least I didn’t make America’s Army. A great way to advertise war without really having to address the finality of death as a possible consequence.
Maybe, in the future, they’ll release a gun-like device you can plug into your USB slot so that when you get shot in the game you can experience it in real life. Even better if you can download a plug-in that will automatically notify your friends and family of your demise.
The truth is, I expect more of this sort of thing. A way to soften a very dark reality that war inevitibly means death, and that there’s a lot of war about at the moment.
I don’t think they were using the video game definition of the word.
Good comic though. Nice inking as always.
They certainly weren’t talking about the grenade-type… I’m fairly sure that it was used, badly, in an attempt to engage the ‘youth’ in the debate over the war.
…and that’s why all computer games should be roguelikes.
Confusing the line between play violence and real violence is a bad thing. In different ways, cultures have always tried to dilute the reality of violence done in their name- by treating war as a game, by dehumanizing their opponents, by glorifying their fighting men. Compare the literature from directly before World War One to that written directly afterwards to see these illusions shattered. Unfortunately, it seems that each generation has to learn these lessons for themselves.
Wow, rogue, my youth in monochrome.
(type ‘roguelikes’ into google if this is all a bit cryptic)
I think there is a worrying mix, a cocktail if you will, between politics, news and entertainment. I’m never sure where one ends and the others begin and I feel that this is just a reflection of that state.
I agree with you on the world war literature front. The loss of optimism, the slow creeping insanity… it’s all there. I suppose this comic is my contribution on that front.
Then you should watch “The Network”- great 70s movie. I’m still mad as hell… the scary thing is that the news is almost as bad as in the movie.
Great comics you’ve got here. I’ve added you to my weekly bookmarks.
Thanks Mr Myers, it’s good to have you on board.
I really like your banjo stuff – it’s an odd theme that works brilliantly.
Just a second ago I saw an Army recruitment commercial that showed these two guys playing a war video game, and then the soldier in the video game and said “Why don’t you play it for real?” and segued into some jazz about manliness or some such. As annoying as recruitment ads usually are, this one was sickening.
What I don’t like about religion is that it reduces real death to the level of “fragging.” “Don’t worry about killing people or getting yourself killed,” it seems to say, “because there’s an afterlife, and anyone who deserves to be happy will be happy there.”
Although in terms of desensitizing us to violence, I think reading the news is actually worse than movies or video games. It doesn’t just make us get used to characters dying on a screen– it makes us get used to people dying in reality.
I wish news articles could at least attach some feeling to it all, but of course they can’t, because journalists have to be objective. The result is that when a news article states that 300 people were killed in a bombing somewhere, there’s as little emotion involved as when a video game player kills 300 enemy characters one after another. I’ve read the news so much that I hardly feel anything at all anymore when I read such things, and it disturbs me.