Games and Politics: Make Your Choice
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Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you.-- Pericles (430 BC)
Every so often, something will come along that causes me to lose faith in Americans. Basically, the thing is usually some stupid, irresponsible witch-hunting by headline seeking glory hounds. Frankly, there has been a lot of this lately, and with good reason. For although America has become a more puritanical and repressive place since my youth in the 70's (I didn't know how good I had it!) it seems like any tragedy that occurs can be exploited by the latest incarnation of the Witchfinder General to make the country more repressive, darker, and more horrible.
I had not intended, during this presidential election, to single out either of the two mainstream presidential tickets. For I know, in my heart, that the concept of Liberty is on life-support in this country, and that the two political parties are basically arguing over who gets to pull the plug.
However, from the beginning, I felt a deep dread of the Al Gore campaign. Al Gore's wife, Tipper Gore, has been an extremely visible and vocal opponent of Liberty, especially the First Amendment. There is music that you have never heard, that you will never have the chance to hear, because of this woman. I'm not just talking about music that was kept out of Walmart, I'm talking about music that was stillborn, because the creators of the music voluntarily (or involuntarily, at the behest of their labels) "toned it down." I'm not much of a fan of music, but occaisionally I'll hear a song I like. I like some music by the Rolling Stones. When they started out, the Stones were not a safe, respectable band. Their music was edgy, and controversial. Tipper Gore, would've been out to keep people from listening to them.... had they started at a later date.
I am not a very big music fan (else my site would be called Music and Politics), and Tipper's anti-gaming positions are not as famous. She did write about "the Satanic Dungeons and Dragons" game in her book, Raising PG-Rated Kids in an X-Rated World. However, we all know that these attacks are typical of the Christian Right, so could I blast the Gore ticket and not consider the toothy flakes advising the Republican leadership? My silence was partly bought by George W. Bush's visit to Bob Jones University, a school with policies that are so outdated and offensive as to be absurd..
However, the recent addition of yet another religious fanatic to the Gore ticket, Joseph "Let's Ban Video Games" Lieberman, has caused me to come down, hard, on the Gore/Lieberman ticket. The veering toward religious fanaticism has already shown its ugly face, Gore threatened to ruin a Democratic Congresswoman who had planned, months ago, a fund-raiser at the Playboy mansion. Note, despite the ideas of many of the Religious Right, the Playboy mansion is just a building, sort of like the way Playboy's monetary contributions are just money. If I thought that Playboy was going to be an evil influence on the Democratic party, I'd be more concerned about giving Hef back the thousands of dollars he's contributed to the Democratic party than this fundraiser.
However, that's neither here nor there as far as gaming is concerned. What is here is the fact that Joseph Lieberman got to be "the conscience of the Senate" partly through his cynical attacks on the gaming industry. Lieberman paved the way for grotesqueries like Lt. Col David "Captain Nazi" Grossman, he made it politically chic to treat video games as if they were more violent than movies, books, and all other media. He's constantly wanted the First Amendment to be suspended where video games are concerned, and no matter how hard the video game industry has tried to appease him, he always comes back to tighten the noose. I've never heard any praise of a gaming company when they have self-censored, for example when Nintendo bowdlerized Mortal Kombat to appease him, Lieberman and people like him. No, Nintendo lost money and market share by acting against the will of its customers, and the whole episode helped their rival, Sega, gain "street cred."
The Lieberman anti-video gaming policy has been one of the most disgusting examples of a phony political crusade driven by pure political opportunism and scoring points with fretful, overprotective moms. It was carried out by a man who has been characterized as a sanctimonious, prudish scold.
I'm still voting for Harry Browne, Libertarian. It's not like George W. Bush has exactly been a crusader for the First Amendment, but he and Dick Cheney are the better men... if only because they haven't sunk to the depths of the Gore/Lieberman ticket, yet.
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