Blurring the Lines

In class, we discussed blurring the lines between soldier and civilian and whether or not "regular people" (i.e., those who aren't fighting in a war) who experience war video games feel like a soldier.

This reminded me of a few things. One: Amanda Palmer's (not to keep harping on her but she's been surprisingly relevant, at least as far as my mind-links and synthesizing goes) "Strength Through Music," which sort of critiques the media's obsession with placing the blame re: the Columbine shootings in 1999--every media outlet wanted to blame violent video games, violent music, violent TV and films. "Don't bother blaming his games and guns," sings Amanda. "He's only playing and boys just want to have fun."

Second, which bridges the gap I just made: Amanda Palmer's "Guitar Hero," which is both a critique of celebrity (specifically, "the rock star") and a critique of war--specifically the blurring of lines between war and video games. In "Guitar Hero," she asserts that video games, whether war-themed or something like Guitar Hero, dumb down the player and effectively numb them to outside experiences or feelings. For instance, in "Guitar Hero," Palmer sings, "How do you get them to turn this thing off?/ This isn't at all like the ones back at home/ Just shut your eyes and flip the cassette/ And that's about the time that they hit." When the soldier begins to think of war as a video game, that's when things get dangerous.

This brings up another issue that I didn't get a chance to toss in during class: the U.S. military was using video games to recruit soldiers and boost morale, using video games to improve hand-eye coordination and imitate field training, and, further, it was noted that soldiers were indeed beginning to think of war as a video game. In the second article, Sgt. Sinque Swales is quoted with something that could come straight from our recent reading: "It felt like I was in a big video game. It didn't even faze me, shooting back. It was just natural instinct. Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!"

That second article in particular is sort of chilling. Video games are now being used by soldiers as a sort of crutch--a way to cope with their reality.

"You just try to block it out, see what you need to do, fire what you need to fire," said Spec. Alfred Trevino, 20. "Think to yourself, 'This is a game, just do it, just do it.'"