Running Full-tilt for Fascism

I know how to ruin anything. For now, it's videogames. Now, many people will say, "Oh they're just games," and yeah, they are for most people but they are incredibly influential. Today, I watched live coverage of E3 and the unveiling of Modern Warfare 3 gameplay. One in the long and almost universally recognized Call of Duty war-game franchise, this game takes war to the homefront in an epic urban battles against the Russians. Now, don't get me wrong, I'll play it if I can but I can't help but feel like the Modern Warfare series presents a huge danger to our political future.

By virtue of taking place on American soil fighting a foreign occupant within the near future, by virtue of the game containing modern weaponry and modern enemies by virtue of the games intense realism, it will have an incredible ability to inculcate an obsession with military culture and patriotism in today's youth. In Nazi Germany and fascist Italy similar obsessions were encouraged in an attempt to build support for the military industrial complex and the fascist state. There, participation in organized sports, boy scouts and military rallies were used to create this military obsession in everyone young and old. Here today, we have millions of young men fighting in simulated battles that could theoretically occur. What will the effect be? This will fundamentally change the public's view of the military. This will create less opposition to military action and more of a sense from the public that military action can be just.

When kids play Call of Duty, especially Modern Warfare 3, they will associate glory, patriotism and freedom with their military and yes, maybe those are things that the military should stand for; however, I can't help but feel that anti-war messages will be drowned out and that we will find ourselves incapable of seeing the military in a bad light. Call of Duty is the most politically irresponsible thing ever to happen when you consider the impact it may have on the security of our freedom and democracy in the Western world and to think, it was the people who made it and the people who chose it. Farewell freedom, I feel the Fascist fanfare.

Videogames, ruined. But seriously, I'm going to play that game for sure but let's all keep an open mind and don't let it change us.

Reflecting A Possible Future

This flag is not meant to directly offend anyone. It does not necessarily reflect the current or past state of the British or United States governments, but only a single possible, and not necessarily likely, future on the current trajectory.

Recently, I watched the film V for Vendetta, a sci-fi thriller about a near-future fascist Britain. This image, which apparently original to the film, was present in the basement of one of the characters, a relic of a time of unfettered freedom of speech (today). The caption read, "The Coalition of the Willing, To Power." I was instantly attracted to this image, as it is just that perfect level of controversy that has the capability of getting one thinking. It was an interesting political statement, saying that with the War on Terror and the War in Iraq the governments of the United States, Britain, Canada, etc. took on more characteristically fascist measures in the name of national security.

I rooted around and found the image in one place: Raincoaster's Blog. I found it interesting the discussion they had about this image and the comparative state of freedom in the United States and Britain. Presumably from Britain they all agreed that the United States, with its habit of wire-tapping in the post-9/11 era, is less free than Britain.

Personally, I disagree, Britain is equally, if not less free than the United States. To me this is evident by the fact that Britain has the most surveillance cameras per capita in the world with over 4 million Closed Circuit Television cameras installed nationwide, compared to a few thousand systems in the United States. In Britain all major city and town centres have Closed Circuit Television. According to studies there is little indication that these systems actually prevent crime, so really, they just provide a window for the government to look into the lives of citizens. This must be considered at least an equal rights violation to the United States wire-tapping.

With these cameras potential for Britain to become an autocratic state is clear. We must ask ourselves, before allowing a government to put in place measures to watch us and "protect" us from ourselves, do they have good intentions. No one wants to believe that their government will hurt them we'd much rather believe that our fellow citizens will hurt us, but at the expense of national security and the prosperity of the masses, they will take away our rights. It is not enough to simply know of past evil, history WILL repeat itself if we don't understand it and if don't act to prevent it.