Interesting point, McGrath. I believe that THE most popular genre of video game nowadays is the "Shooter" variety. They are really, really sick. They all involve operating from a godlike perspective, peering down the sights of the weapon of your choice, and killing, killing, killing. Killing literally hundreds of computer-generated victims, while being almost unkillable yourself (specially once you've mastered the specific tricks of the game in question...which takes many hours of play). Then, how like a "god"...or a demon.

This is pathetic. It says a lot about the society that markets such stuff.

These are the favoured games of choice amongst young males right now. It's a way of feeling powerful, and it's the powerless who seek that feeling, right?

Well, young males have always been troubled by feelings of powerlessness, but seldom has society tacitly encouraged them toward such violent and impersonal fantasies so completely devoid of any coherent meaning or philosophy in the greater context of life.

It isn't just a problem of the video game industry, it's a problem of the society in general, its entertainment system, and its heroes. Very poor role models are being provided for the young...and that is the status quo out there in the Empire. As some famous jerk in American sports history once said, "winning isn't the most important thing, it's the only thing". Uh-huh. No honour, no character, no mercy...just win..."live and let die", to use another phrase.

There's another type of game that's very popular too...the "driver" game. In most of these you drive a car at breakneck speeds through city streets, ramming other cars, driving across lawns and medians, knocking over mailboxes and pedestrians and living out your brief 15 minutes of mayhem and glory, with a herd of police cars in pursuit, until you finally total your vehicle against some unyielding surface and the game ends. No sweat. You just start over again and re-experience the thrill of being an antisocial asshole with a death wish.

Great education for young minds, isn't it?

One wonders when the free enterprise system will sweep aside another archaic taboo and start marketing "rapist" games, too? I bet they'd sell like hotcakes. And, after all, it would all be just virtual reality, right? No one would really be getting raped...so why should a bunch of bleeding heart sociologists and philosophers stand in the way of businessmen making an honest buck marketing a harmless product?

Echoes of the Fall of humanity. And all for a lousy buck.

I believe it won't be so much the swastika that a future and far wiser civilization will look back on some day with ultimate horror, as it will be the dollar sign $$$...and the other symbols of currency that presently rule the world.

- LH