The above screen capture is from a video game:
Uncharted 3, a third-person shooter with remarkable visual grace
that explores the Middle East through the usual, limited frame
of a white man (from London), with no indigenous strains.
And that's the problem. America with three capital K's
has come full-force in every facet today.
We've got Michael Brown putting his hands up for a party in the USA,
while protesters can barely see through the haze.
And that's the problem. Gamer-gate, a subculture exposed
as a bunch of misogynist vultures and drones
keeping their membership closed
to anyone with a different perspective. Rather than changing their tone
they'd rather plug their ears and continue to victimize those
who dare speak out against a system that's broke.
White male heroes missing the joke
of their own frail egos and limited scope.
And that's the problem. Another depiction of oil fields as battlefields.
The War on Terror really captured mass appeal, a tragic heel,
turning brown men into villains. Turning Islam into the enemy.
Turning our shoulders to an oppressed people because they seem to let it be.
We're unwilling to consider the freedoms of women draped in cloth,
and to all those with no voice, we'll tell them, "Sheik it off."
And that's the problem.
Are we reflecting our follies?
Too many think-pieces, not enough thinkers can enter and lobby
for change that would temper our hobbies
to the point that they'd better society.
But see, we've given up on art as anything more than callous enjoyment
so any societal play gets violently flayed on grounds of avoidance.
Video games are built to escape everyday malaise and bullies on pulpits.
A place where even a white man can turn into the hulk and scurry through bullets.
And their heads are down.
It's not their problem if they can't see it.
so they're better off in their trance, seeking
enlightenment through Easter egg advanced secrets.
And that's the problem. We're all lost in the woods of our own insecurities,
so we bury our fears in digital worlds and lack the hope for a perfect peace.
Created by white men, for white men, with white male protagonists,
these video games get one thing right:
We're all murderous savages.