Remember BattleTanx?

This article in the Economist about dwindling populations reminded me of one of my favorite N64 games, BattleTanx.

With women quickly vanishing from the face of the Earth, thank the Lord that humanity was smart enough to band together into deranged tank-driving hordes! That'll solve the problem! I can remember whipping around the pixelated corners of "skyscrapers" (more like small-town tenaments) firing rockets at my evil, hoe-stealing enemies. I also remember being a huge fan of the fastest "tank", which resembled a post-Armaggedon era Beetle:

All my friends would pick those big bulky Abrams and I'd be laughing my butt off, blasting them with machine gun fire. Now that I'm old, wise and have a lot of thinking time on my brain, all I can think about is: When do I get to play some more Capture the Booty?! I mean, the premise of this game is: kick the crap out of all the other dudes so you can grab some booty! Considering how poor I'd fair at such a scenario in real life, I'm happy that there are virtual options open to me. Ya, things in the BattleTanx universe don't sound so good for women, but what can you do!? A woman-only virus has killed off 99.99% of the female population! That brings me to my next conundrum, why are these guys getting so organized if it's all to get a single woman. Yikes.

In the Storyline part of the game, you're playing a married man, who recruits an army of fellow tank drivers in his quest to get his Woman back (wooooman). Here's what I wanna know: How the hell did he convince these other tank drivers to help?? Assuming he's a moral sort of stand-up tank driver, Our Hero would only be able to say something along the lines of:

"Help me get my woman back and I'll allow you to help raise my children! You might even get to be the child's Wetnurse!"

If he were an evil sort of leader, I don't even want to know how he got his homies to grab their 'nines and come a-runin'.

Proof

Liberterian economists think that regulation hampers the proper running of capitalism. I think what they intend to say is, regulation stops the market from functioning efficiently. Capitalism and the market are two different things. Capitalism being a method for running a market.

Here's all the evidence you need for the profits of industry being aided by regulation. South Korean anti-piracy laws regulate the downloading of media products. The media industry is then able to profit from their labors. Media companies are producing goods, correct? They should be compensated for those goods, correct? At least, that's what a capitalistic system would have everything be. Hence the need for regulation, in the form of anti-piracy laws.

A new era

What's going on?

I just met a homeless man standing outside Taco Bell. He was begging for money so that he could stay at a hotel and get clean. I didn't want to just hand him money, because I wondered what he would really use it for. I asked him if he would want some food and he accepted my offer. But even after buying him the meal, he persisted in asking for money for a hotel room but I turned him down. I wished him luck and made my way home. I don't know how David ended up outside a San Mateo Taco Bell. I do know that here is a man who is very down on his luck. And meanwhile, as David and thousands like him struggle to find a place to stay for the night, the wealthiest 1% are looking into purchasing their next luxury home.


We need a change, America. We started with Obama. But we aren't done. If we are going to take on Big Business, we have to organize. Because they have more money than any of us do (combined), but we have our numbers. We have to unite. We have to stop being cowed by what we see as the status quo. We have to stand up and rise as one! For the sake of American humanity!

Here's what half the people who ever read this (ie, one of you) will undoubtedly think: David, the guy standing outside of Taco Bell, is an alcoholic, who complains about the woes in his life. Oh really? What about 90% of New York or San Francisco 20 somethings. Are they not alcoholics? Honestly, I think 20 somethings of all cities in this country consume more alcohol per capita than most homeless people. After all, they have a lot more money to their name. And who doesn't complain about their life?? Everyone does. It's human to complain about your life.

Those of you who think half of the Americans in this country are lazy welfare hogs, all I have to say is: Open your eyes to reality. Reality is this:

The fact is, the wealthiest command this country's resources. And despite all that capitalists might claim, the "trickle down" economics of Reagan fails. America, the people on Welfare got there because there are no opportunities available. Maybe some of these people aren't the most cunning. They aren't innovators like Steve Jobs or Mark Zuckerberg, or titans of industry like Rockefeller or Carnegie. But should that preclude them from having a decent job? Don't they deserve an opportunity to have a job that pays them enough to make ends meet? 9% of Americans do not have that chance. 35% of Americans earn less than 25k a year, and 50% of American families earn less than 50k a year. Add that to the above. These aforementioned are struggling to get by while 1% of our population commands a significant proportion of our nation's wealth! What has happened to us America?! How much worse does this need to get?!

Now I know what I've said previously, and I mean what I said. I don't like complaining. What I like is action. What we need to do is stop talking. And start standing up. Aside from a few isolated cases, the banking industry foreclosed on America. The largest bailout in history was borne on the backs of Americans, and the status quo has continued. The rich have continued to get richer and the poor, poorer. Change needs to happen. This system of ongoing inequality will get worse before it gets better, but I hope that justice comes to all those who have stolen the treasure of the people and brought uncounted suffering into the lives of so many.

Why do people play games?

It all makes sense to me now. The reason why people play video games. The reason why I want to play video games even though I know it's just a waste of time.

Here's the reality of any war on Earth, the people who really end up suffering are the innocent civilians who just want to go about their daily lives:

The reality of war is that there is no Good and Evil. Americans look back to WWII with nostalgia because we've successfully convinced ourselves that it was a war between Us (Good) vs Them (Evil). Never again in the subsequent 60 years has there been such a war. America keeps getting itself into conflicts but fail in attempts to portray themselves as the Good guys. Why? Because of globalization and the availability of information, the humanity of our opponents is clearer than ever. Moreover, the reality of American global interests is ever clearer.


Rather than consider the fact that we're involved in two misguided war efforts, where we force American ideologies on other ethnic groups, we can instead turn to video games where our opponents look like this:

The enemy is evil! He wants to eat our brains! It's a whole lot easier to figure out who's evil in this game!

Video games are a great way to avoid thinking about difficult issues, ie, the reality of our world. Same thing goes for sports:

We root for OUR team. The other team is evil! It's that simple. We can turn our thinking brains off with this kind of competition.

In a real war, turning your brain off will get you killed. Turning your brain off will cause you to make stupid decisions. Stupid decisions like torturing prisoners:

Or maybe killing civilians:

Reality is a whole lot messier than a video game or a sporting match.

Maybe part of my desire for video games is that I want to avoid considering extremely complex and difficult issues.

Aren't we glad we live in the 21st century?

I was thinking back to that amazing book, What is the What. We learn about how awful circumstances were during the second civil war between Arab Sudan and the Dinka-held South. There are some terrifying scenes in that book, that make you question humanity. But just think about how such a situation played out in previous centuries. An ethnic group travels to another territory. This traveling tribe possesses superior weaponry than the current occupants. Fast forward a decade, and you have a new resident ethnic group: the one's with the guns. Where did that old group who had been living there for centuries and who had a "rightful claim" to the land go? They either died, fled, or were assimilated by gun-toting oppressors.

Nowadays, whenever an ethnic group tries to do what is historically prudent for our species, they get shouted out from all corners of the world! All they want to do is use superior technology to wipe out an ethnicity that's sitting on valuable land resources. What's the harm in that? Now, UN Peacekeeping forces try (rarely successfully) to mediate these conflicts and set up refugee cities to accommodate displaced ethnic groups. Meanwhile, international pressure slowly builds against these nefarious would-be oppressors, until they have little recourse but to stop the fighting or go extinct themselves!

Even though there are cases in this world where genocides continue, world opinion has never been so focused against it. See, there is a good reason for globalization, San Jose Mercury News!

I must be stupid

We have two political parties in our country, and there's little difference between them. Both claim that the other screwed up the country while in power, and yet realistically, BOTH have been in power for over a hundred years! They may have lost a majority here or there over the decades, but their power and influence is the major reason for the face of our current government. Everyone at this point claims that our government is a wreck, that our country is falling to pieces. And it's always someone else's fault. Democrats blame the Republicans, Republicans blame the Democrats, Union leaders blame Big Business, Big Business blames lazy people sitting on welfare. We've seen the same kind of people come and go from government, and we ask ourselves how we got this point in our country. Why is our country "declining"? How could we have gotten to this miserable point?

Plenty of people have grandiose visions of where they think the country should be. But they never ask questions that are far more important, How are we going to realistically get to where we want to go? If now sucks big time, what do we think is needed to make our lives and status not suck? Instead of lopping people's heads off, let's start making some changes. And realistically, if matters are so bad in this country, then why the hell aren't we seeing an uprising? Why aren't people taking to the streets? In the 1960s, millions marched on Washington. What happened to that kind of activism? We are in the midst of two wars! We have soaring debt! Money market managers are walking away with untold millions while 50% of our country gets by on less than the federally established poverty levels!!

The last great march on Washington I heard about was not a call for drastic changes in our legal code regarding the status of race or the rights of the impoverished. It was a call for people to stop acting like crazy fanatical idiots in politics.
If we were really pissed about all this, we would do something about it. And there's the rub of it. We blame congressmen, but I bet those guys are working a hell of a lot harder than the average Joe. Really, We as a people have failed ourselves because we fail to get active. So there's your answer of who's to blame. We are. Wake up America. We are electing all these "corrupt officials" who are taking this country to hell with their "inane" government policies. We are supporting these wars with our bodies and our blood and our treasure. We are giving out the taxes that support welfare programs and bail out the rich. We are working at jobs that don't provide an adequate living wage for our families.

Why did we let this happen? Because we work 40 hours a week and then we go home to take care of our families? Or because we've convinced ourselves that we need to look fit to impress all the people around us, so we spend hours at a gym every week? Or because we have dreams of being the next Hendrix so we spend hours a day playing guitar? And let's be even more realistic, is it because after a "long hard day" at work, we think we deserve a break so we go home to our televisions and video games and let the evening dribble away from us?

If this country sucks America, it's OUR fault. We stood by and let it get as far as it has. Stop acting like it's all the politicians' fault. If you see something wrong in your life that you think the government is responsible for, stand up and make your voice heard. This country was founded on the idea of populist democracy. Elected officials are meant to serve the people, of which we are all a part of. Take a stand for something, for anything, if you're feeling so inclined. But otherwise, understand this: Our country is only "going to shit" if you think it is. If you don't have any particular reason for thinking otherwise, then you might as well concede the fact that you, personally, are doing FINE and that as far as you can tell, the economy and the country are doing fine as well.

Stop listening to the pundits, America. Listen to yourselves. If you are managing to get by, chances are, YOU ARE FINE. If other people are not doing fine, then they have a responsibility to try and get their voices heard. And if you hear their voice, and it resonates with you, THEN it is time to act.

Take this unemployment fiasco for example. Pundits talk about our high unemployment rate constantly. You know who I never hear about? The unemployed people. They never say word one about this whole thing. I don't see them on the street, I don't see them marching on Washington. It's not as if they are being locked away in sweatshops all day, they don't work! Maybe it's important for us to find work for the 8-9% of Americans. But if the shit were really bad for these guys, don't you think they'd be on the streets shouting about it? Don't you think they would try and organize? If you're reading this and you're thinking, "Umm, shut up, guy! My life IS crappy. I AM unemployed and it's AWFUL. I look for jobs everyday and I don't find anything." Well, in that case. GET UP AND DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT! Chances are, if you are unemployed and struggling to get by, then there's likely to be someone else out there who isn't doing so hot either. Social media has made organizing easier than ever. You must have SOME TIME in your day to try and do this??

Government has no incentive to enforce actual changes to our jobs situation because it's always just the usual clamoring. They don't get inundated by the unemployed. Their days are consumed with phone calls from special interest and lobbying groups. The days of popular activism seems to have ended. Yet we act as if the problems facing this country are historic. If that's the case, then sholdn't we stand up in defiance? I think the reason we don't is that our country isn't actually as bad off as everyone makes it out to be. Actually, let me rephrase that. Our country could be going in the shitter, I have no idea as an individual citizen whether that's true or false. Here's what I do know: Basically, my life is fine. And my guess is that the lives of a lot of other people are fine. So many people's lives are fine, in fact, that they don't really think it's necessary to get off their couches and do something drastic like stand outside of Washington for days on end.

Until the day comes that the fan stops moving from all the poop clogging it's mechanical arteries, true change will not come to this country. That's what I foresee. Until enough people are out of work and actually starving no great change will come to the state of this country. Circumstances are simply not dramatic enough for radical change.

So until our Julius comes, complain on America. I know you don't have the balls to actually do anything about it.

What is the What?

Do you want to find out the truth about the What? I think you should! It's a dreadfully real and frightening story about the precariousness of life. It will teach you the preciousness of your own life and the chances and opportunities that have been afforded you. And it will show you that even with all the obstacles that you have had to face, opportunity is still abounding.

Afterward, you can look into the Valentino Achak Deng Foundation, and know that something good has come out of the terrible suffering that a single man endured in Africa.