OT: Politics

[SlipperyJim]

MaxWilson said:
Fair enough--I'm Christian as well--but looking at the history of D&D it's still a valid observation that the, uh, more fundamentalist (evangelical?) Christians are less likely to be a fan of simulating pagan religious warfare. And fundamentalism is a form of conservatism, so IMHO Archonsod's point is valid.

Yeah, I know. Just like their concern over Harry Potter, a number of my brothers and sisters in the faith would probably get their knickers in a twist over playing Dominions 3. What can I say? I believe they are wrong. I also believe that such folks are distinctly in the minority, even among us crazy Jesus freaks. For example, we have discussed Harry Potter in my home Bible-study group, and none of us are worried about it. In fact, a few of us are even fans.

D&D and other RPGs are in a different category for me, but it's not really about the occult. See, I grew up playing a lot of RPGs: D&D, GURPS, Shadowrun, Earthdawn (yay, horrors!), Call of Cthulhu, Torg, and many more. I was also a frequent player on several MUDs, which were the pre-Everquest version of MMORPGs. I spent an obscene amount of time, money, and effort on make-believe. Then I had an "Aha!" moment. What if I could devote even a fraction of that time, money, and effort to something or someone real?

RPGs are a great form of escape. But as soon as the escape takes priority over the real world, something is horribly wrong....

[Gandalf Parker]

Ive always said that the matrix movie had a very flawed basis for the story. The machines force us into a virtual world? If they perfect jacked-in technology then I think a too large portion of the populace will voluntarily take to their beds with more and more machines being force to take care of them.

Gandalf Parker
Hurry up with the Matrix.
I want to be playing Dominions 10 in the nursing home.

[llamabeast]

Argh, the main problem with the Matrix storyline to my mind is the "we need you for your bio-energy" idea. This is bizarre on two levels:

1) Obviously you can't get out more energy than you put in. Just burn their food in a power station.
2) Even if bio-energy was somehow the way forward, why not use, for instance, cows? Or raccoons? Same bio-energy presumably, less chance of rebellion.

They should have said they needed something from humans that only humans could provide - for instance, perhaps the machines need to harness the processing power of our brains? That would make much more sense.

I often think that if only the film makers would pay me (or any other vaguely intelligent person) a tenner to look over their scripts before they started making them, films could be a hell of a lot better. There are so many glaring, stupid plot holes in so many films that could so easily be fixed. How can people put so many hours and so much money into making something that doesn't make sense, when that problem could be rectified by asking your mate in the pub if he had a more sensible idea?

[Archonsod]

The way hollywood's going these days, paying those same cows or racoons to write the scripts would produce marginally better results

[HoneyBadger]

You know, until recently, they *did* used to say that we only used 10% of our brains.

[llamabeast]

Well exactly.

Film script writers probably use less.

[TwoBits]

Obviously, someone has never faced a full-blown raccoon rebellion. It ain't pretty...

[Evil Dave]

llamabeast said:
Film script writers probably use less.

I think it was Harlan Ellison who gave an example of "creativity" in Hollywood: A producer races into the office of a studio executive. "Chief! I've got a great idea for a movie: let's make The Wiz, white!"

(If you don't get it: The Wiz is a version of The Wizard of Oz with an all-black cast.)

[Saxon]

Tolkien should be looked at in a different light that right vs. left. He is an early environmentalist arguing with industrialism. He grew up in rural South Africa and later moved to a heavily industrialized England. From the rolling and wild plains of Orange Free State to the heart of the industrial world.

This is reflecting in his work and taken a step farther in the movies. Industrial orc hatched in factories, cutting the trees and inspiring the attack of the Ents. Noble Shirefolk getting their peaceful rural ways upset by men. The age of magic elves passing and dirty men with their mechanical and mundane ways coming.

Interestingly, there are lots of parallels to early green movements in Germany in the 20’s and 30’s and, if we really want to talk politics, how those ideals and followers got pulled in and cooped by the Nazi movement. Up to today, the Greens in Germany have to be very careful about what images they use, as many of the traditional Green symbols were cooped by the Nazis. This is both for political and legal reasons, and I am sure many have you have seen various forum rules about Nazi imagery. Ideas of the Volk, connection to the earth and organic farming were all mixed together at the time.

I do rush to point out that the Greens in Germany have worked very hard to distance themselves from this past and I am in no way suggesting they hold those ideals today. The Red Green coalition in Germany is a very long way from the past.

In any case, looking at Tolkien developing his ideals in the pre war world, where the Greens were still young, but present, may give a different and, I would suggest, deeper view of his political thought.

[Gandalf Parker]

Thats interesting. I had always heard that the series was bedtime stories for his kids that just kept getting more and more elaborate as they grew older. And that trying to read hidden meanings into it was like looking for real world connotations in Dr Seuss.