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Now that's i've got something on my stomach, and I'm dressed and showered, I'm in better shape to make sense of my earlier observations. This is really sketchy, and it's not that it'll come to any particular use per say, but it's been a little while since I posted anything, anyhow so here it goes.
Earlier last week, I was playing Civilization 4, which you're more or less forced to do as an enigmatic, faceless, immortal dictator-for-life and was, as is my wont, sending excess troops into the hungry maw of a new world (aka, basically a woodchipper) far away from the lands they were born (aka, built) in, in order to suborn independant but unrelated civilizations (aka, barbarian nation states) and fold them into my empire so that I can achieve global domination through control of most of the world's landmasses. I turned to Katie and said, "You know, this would be a really horrific thing that I'm doing, if this were real."
But it's not real. In Civilization, you're playing a game, you're not really building a civilization. You're trying to win. I mean, you win by building the most successful Civilization at one of several victory conditions, so you need to wipe all the civilizations off the map, or send someone to Alpha Centauri, or generate a ridiculously successful culture rating, or control a huge swath of the landmass. It's not enough to create a series of successful civilizations, you actually have to win. In real life, I don't care if we send someone to Mars first or if China does, I'm just excited someone got to Mars. But someone cares. Someone important cares. Because it's about claiming resources for our nation-state. Even if that's true, we acknowledge (when we're doing a little better as a culture) that no matter what we do to other people, we're doing it to other people. So when we exploit people, we know, somehow, that we're exploiting them. A lot of times, it's in the name of Empire, but these days, it's in the name of the almighty Dollar.
I'd say, we're not something to be played. We are not a game. But we are. We are a game.
There would always be people who are content to drive the actions of others in order to win. Sometimes, it's for glory or nationalism, but these days it's for the consolidation of capital. The people at the top - the very, very top, are wealthy beyond the dreams of anyone living in the 99% and even most of the 1%. Most of the wealthy in the 1% is not in the hands of the majority of that 1%, but in the hands of 1% of that, still.
I mean, at the level these people are playing at, Mitt Romney's millions are a joke. It's not just their personal fortunes they're playing with; when you're operating at that high a level, it's all numbers. It's difficult to do anything productive. Do you think these guys work? No way, man. But the glitch in the system is that it's almost impossible to stop your money from making more money automatically. There are people they've never met, working diligently all hours of the day and night to make that happen. It's an accident. They may not even be aware of what they're doing.
But that makes their actions very little different from those of a deranged sociopath trying to accumulate more numbers because they need the most. The only goal is to make more numbers. The results of those actions are never seen. Do you think that third-world despots ever interact with the desperately poor they've created? No man, they're insulated from that.
So, I thought, "Man alive. The biggest difference between Grand Theft Auto and Civilization, in theme, is scale."
Earlier last week, I was playing Civilization 4, which you're more or less forced to do as an enigmatic, faceless, immortal dictator-for-life and was, as is my wont, sending excess troops into the hungry maw of a new world (aka, basically a woodchipper) far away from the lands they were born (aka, built) in, in order to suborn independant but unrelated civilizations (aka, barbarian nation states) and fold them into my empire so that I can achieve global domination through control of most of the world's landmasses. I turned to Katie and said, "You know, this would be a really horrific thing that I'm doing, if this were real."
But it's not real. In Civilization, you're playing a game, you're not really building a civilization. You're trying to win. I mean, you win by building the most successful Civilization at one of several victory conditions, so you need to wipe all the civilizations off the map, or send someone to Alpha Centauri, or generate a ridiculously successful culture rating, or control a huge swath of the landmass. It's not enough to create a series of successful civilizations, you actually have to win. In real life, I don't care if we send someone to Mars first or if China does, I'm just excited someone got to Mars. But someone cares. Someone important cares. Because it's about claiming resources for our nation-state. Even if that's true, we acknowledge (when we're doing a little better as a culture) that no matter what we do to other people, we're doing it to other people. So when we exploit people, we know, somehow, that we're exploiting them. A lot of times, it's in the name of Empire, but these days, it's in the name of the almighty Dollar.
I'd say, we're not something to be played. We are not a game. But we are. We are a game.
There would always be people who are content to drive the actions of others in order to win. Sometimes, it's for glory or nationalism, but these days it's for the consolidation of capital. The people at the top - the very, very top, are wealthy beyond the dreams of anyone living in the 99% and even most of the 1%. Most of the wealthy in the 1% is not in the hands of the majority of that 1%, but in the hands of 1% of that, still.
I mean, at the level these people are playing at, Mitt Romney's millions are a joke. It's not just their personal fortunes they're playing with; when you're operating at that high a level, it's all numbers. It's difficult to do anything productive. Do you think these guys work? No way, man. But the glitch in the system is that it's almost impossible to stop your money from making more money automatically. There are people they've never met, working diligently all hours of the day and night to make that happen. It's an accident. They may not even be aware of what they're doing.
But that makes their actions very little different from those of a deranged sociopath trying to accumulate more numbers because they need the most. The only goal is to make more numbers. The results of those actions are never seen. Do you think that third-world despots ever interact with the desperately poor they've created? No man, they're insulated from that.
So, I thought, "Man alive. The biggest difference between Grand Theft Auto and Civilization, in theme, is scale."
