The Geek Kernels?
Tawfiq Chahboune
A Tale of Two Computer Games: One is denounced by the liberal
intelligentsia; the other is either given zero attention by the illuminati, or
praised by the sad computer fraternity. A computer game where one has to blow
JFK away has been vilified by the media and cultural priesthood. Their great
hero, after all, had his skull blown to bits all over Jackie’s ghastly pink
frock (not quite the way one would choose to go out: red and grey on pink is so
tasteless and unsophisticated; red and grey on black would have been so much
more fashionable).
Liberal
war criminals, like JFK and LBJ, always seem to have a rather large following
among the glitterati, whose sadistic ecstasy in watching the empire’s present
enemies tortured and murdered would not be out of place among the SS storm
troopers whose own diabolical cruelty no doubt demanded a ready supply of
Kleenex; Nixon never had many cheerleaders in the media and intellectual mafia.
I put this down to his initials not having the rhythmic ring of his predecessors
- RMN doesn’t quite roll off the tongue as JFK and LBJ.
The other entertaining computer game, whose barbarity is
staggering, I refer to is the new and “cool” Vietcong: Purple Haze (rated 15).
Confused? A thought experiment may be in order. Instead of this real “game”, if
it can be described as such, let me make up a few games and see how you like
them. You is a nigger and you have to munch your way through as much fried
chicken and watermelon as possible. Fried chicken counts more than watermelon,
so the more finger lickin’ KFC joints Malcolm and his hooded sambos do over, the
more points they get. The game is called “Eggplants gotta eat!” Bo! Or perhaps
you are a policeman – white, of course – who has to stop niggers from doing what
they do naturally, raping virginal white girls with their huge... For every one
you catch, you get a point. For every one you bash to death, you get ten points.
That game is called “Catch a Nigger.” In the real world the game would be called
“L.A. Police Officer”. Aiii!
Here’s another game. You’re a Nazi (the good guy) and for every
Jew (what else but bad guy?) you throw into the gas chamber, a hundred points
beckon. For every Jesus-killer you turn into soap, well, that’s a thousand
points. We could call this game “Ouchwitz!” or, even better, “Ouch, Fritz!” Get
the idea? Are you disgusted, offended, sickened? One hopes so. At least you’re
no longer confused. Dickens’s worst of times, age of foolishness, epoch of
incredulity and season of darkness are all to be seen in what is known as
computer entertainment.
How would you feel if you knew that such pernicious games were on
sale? For all I know, there may well be neo-Nazi computer games, but I somehow
doubt this sort of “White Pride” (have the fascists gone into the sliced bread
business?) culture is allowed on general release for Johnny and Janey to get
their mitts on. The Mein Kampf reading groups may wish to drop me a line and
enlighten me. One always feels rather deflated when facing that hoary cliché,
“fact is stranger than fiction”. Deflation, in this case, doesn’t quite cover
it. I have learnt, in the course of this paragraph, that there are indeed
fascist computer games: not every fascist is a shitkicking redneck, hillbilly
with designs on his sister, or member of the Labour Party. Evidently, some are
highly computer literate and choose to waste their talents on producing evil
masquerading as fun.
Here are some games I came across in the course of this article,
most with pretty unimaginative titles: Ethnic Cleansing, Shoot The Blacks,
Concentration Camp Rat Hunt, and The Fuhrer Lives (the one balled psycho with
the absurd moustache and tasteless brown suits did not have the ball, not balls,
to test his master race theories against the rapidly approaching “subhuman” Red
Army). One anti-Semitic compufilth game allows the player a choice of dress: KKK
robes or skinhead. That skinhead is not attire has obviously passed the fasco-geeks
by. The programmers have obviously “thought” hard about making the murder of
Jews merry entertainment: “Oy Vey” are the departing words of the liquidated
Jew. (Richard Littlejohn will be updating his joke files accordingly. Although
more offensive than his Shite = Shiite “joke”, it would nevertheless be in the
same class for the man who is pained by allegations of bigotry.)
The revolting 9-11: Survivor has been taken off cyberspace after
pressure to do so. Unfortunately, the well of depravity is deep and another US
disaster looks set to titillate the gaming fraternity in place of 9-11. Doom For
Columbine is due for internet release. Those on general release include the
homophobic Postal 2. Also on general release is Grand Theft Auto: Vile City,
which spurs the gamer to “kill the Haitians” and “kill the Cubans” in a
Miami-like city. One can only wonder how America would react to an Islamic
country allowing anti-Semitic games, or games whereby one rams airliners into
skyscrapers, or a game based on The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
Now think about the entertaining computer game Vietcong -
available, unlike most of their vile fascistic cousins, on general release.
Subtitled Purple Haze, this foul game is described by various computer games
geeks - minds melted after listening to thrash metal and watching wrestling - as
a “game to make you kiss the sky”, “serious fun”, “an absolute gem” and
sickeningly “napalm has never smelt so good”.
Firstly,
the very term Vietcong is abusive, and intentionally so. Secondly, and more
importantly, the idea is that you simply murder as many Vietnamese as is
possible, or, so claimeth the official website, “defend yourself from the
onslaughts of…the cunning enemy” – an “enemy” GI Joe and his all-American gang
of war criminals had to “save” from harvesting communist rice. The very fact
that anyone would consider this a game worth playing boggles the mind and raises
the bile from one’s stomach. The US Special Forces you are meant to be playing,
lest we forget, are the same demented sociopaths awarded medals for raping
children and wiping out whole villages – otherwise known as bravery. And,
moreover, decimating a whole nation and murdering some four million people.
Kissinger would later receive a Nobel Peace Prize for destroying much of
Indochina – or bringing peace to Indochina, as the Nobel committee put it. The
makers of Vietcong: Purple Haze would no doubt agree.
Perhaps the makers of Vietcong will soon put their spotty heads
together to create culturally enriching new games called “Hitler: Antifascist
Campaigner” or “Jack the Ripper: Radical Feminist”. An intellectual and media
climate dominated by liberals (the guardians of acceptable rightwing thought)
will always view the murder of JFK, one of the worst US presidents, to be more
repellent than the slaughter of millions in Vietnam. The differences between the
fascistic computer games on release and those which aren’t (whether banned or
not produced by the major manufacturers) is essentially a matter of degree: is
playing at killing JFK worse than doing likewise to Vietnamese? Is playing a
game based on the destruction of the World Trade Centre worse than a game where
the historical context is a devastated Vietnam?
This game is a mere symptom of a more horrific societal disease:
the suffering of others is now entertainment, especially when the history of
nations such as the Native Americans, Aboriginals, Vietnamese, etc, is unknown,
or should I say excised?
In a free society, or one that aims to get there, banning such
games is anathema. It is far more pertinent to ask: How did such poisonous
pollution become entertainment? Films, our favourite form of entertainment, have
always had a hand in vilifying many groups: Native Americans were an early
target (their mere existence was offensive to whitey), soon to be followed by
blacks (again, whitey no like), communists (anyone who believes that a child
should not have to work in a sweat shop), South American narcotraffickers (code
for all Latinos), mad-eyed Arabs (is there any other kind?). Now we have a
computer game that glorifies crimes against humanity.
Where does this inhumanity come from? To start with, look no
further than the pure and wholesome US military. It has been noted that the US
Air Force have named their weapons after exterminated Native American tribes:
Apache and Blackhawk are but two. And, furthermore, how would we react if the
Luftwaffe named their military aircraft Jew and Gypsy? Or the Turks named their
gunships the Armenian? In any case, the makers of Vietcong are merely following
in the distinguished footsteps of some of the Western world’s most revered men
of peace (Sharon, Bush’s “man of peace”, unfortunately has to sit this one out).
Their irrational outbursts of bloodlust were thankfully documented. Lloyd George
“insisted on reserving the right to bomb niggers”, while Winston Churchill could
not “understand this squeamishness about the use of gas” against “recalcitrant
Arabs as experiment” and other “uncivilised tribes” who were in desperate need
of a good dose of “lively terror”. Now there’s a name for a computer game:
Lively Terror.
July 2005