Madinat al-Muslimeen Islamic Message Board
We're pawns in a dangerous game |
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DaSouljah |
10/12/01 at 20:45:59 |
We're pawns in a dangerous game The war on TV is playing out with maps and icons instead of human beings. It's a game that has lasted since the dawn of civilization. By IRSHAAD HUSSAIN Friday, October 12, 2001 – Page A22 It's late and the room is dark except for the flickering light cast by the television. I should be in bed but the endless analysis and commentary on the Sept. 11 attack and America's unrelenting military response mesmerizes me. On the screen is an ochre-tinted map of Afghanistan and the countries that border it. An orange tinge seeps into the room as the map expands. Tiny word boxes pop up as an unseen commentator talks. Each box contains short descriptive phrases and point-form summaries about Afghanistan's bordering nations and their military significance to the United States in this crisis. I notice that, by the TV's projected light, the skin of my hands is the colour of Afghanistan's desert sands, and as I watch the strategic overview, with its tiny moving icons of planes, destroyers, missiles and troops, a feeling of unreality, of a disturbing absurdity washes over me. I had this feeling earlier in this crisis, as well. A news program played an endless loop of the World Trade Center crash footage -- a horrific, surreal viewing experience in which the planes' hammer-blows demolish the two towers again and again. As a follow-up, hastily assembled computer graphics were used to illustrate the flight-path taken. Tiny cartoon-like airplanes moved jerkily across the screen and crashed into cartoon towers followed by comic book explosions. Watching this, I wondered if it was possible that the terrorists storyboarded their attack strategy using similar icons. Or perhaps they used Monopoly-style game pieces on a map of Manhattan to decide their flight path. When we play a game like Monopoly, we do not question what effect our land purchases, our strategically extravagant rental rates, and our accumulation of key properties would have on real people in the real world. We play to win -- morality is not part of the game. On a game board you factor out human consequences in favour of tactics. The human consequences only get in the way. Today, we have elaborate computer games which allow the administration of vast simulated realms and kingdoms (games such as Tropico, Age of Empires, Civilization, etc.). In these games, human factors such as a population's material and social needs and desires are a part of the simulation. Strategy is more complex than in most board games as you must balance conquest with your citizen's needs. While you dispatch marauding armies to nearby kingdoms, you must also struggle to keep your own population content and controlled so that they support and approve your military conquests, suppression of rebellions, destruction of enemies, and other acts of empire-building and maintenance. These human factors are simply additional volatile parameters that must be managed effectively to keep them from interfering with the game's main objective -- dominance. Now, as I watch the war unfolding on TV, conveyed through colourful maps and cartoon icons, I feel a sense of dread. Map-based overviews give way to live footage of Afghan refugees, demolished buildings, demonstrations in the streets of Pakistan, grainy nighttime images of cruise missile strikes, and emotional expressions of support for the war from American citizens. Then, an "expert" on terrorism explains the possible measures that can be taken "to smoke out" the terrorists. He goes on to explain how this will be a first step of a global plan, of a long battle to eliminate terrorism, and expounds about necessary tradeoffs between civilian casualties and the achievement of desired objectives. I start to wonder if the life of nations is simply a great game in which the players strive to position their pieces for maximum advantage, leverage, and gain. Certain players have the advantage and dominate the board, others struggle to maintain their moderately favourable positions, some fight simply to remain in the game, and a few try desperate and audacious strategies to change the course of play. The idea seems absurd and yet I cannot shake it. Like one of the virtual citizens in a computer simulation, I feel as if I am, at this juncture in history, only a resource to be managed so that I do not disturb the momentum of the great game. I do not think the principal players in such a game actively seek to do evil. But they are playing for their own advantage and so they make whatever moves they deem necessary to achieve this advajtage. Each one seeks to protect and to advance their position and, in this way, the game progresses through endlessly complex dynamics -- forever different, but, at root, forever the same. They don't seek to do evil, but for the sake of the game, they accept the evil that is done. Perhaps that is one of the faces of real malevolence -- that some play this world like a vast, infinitely intricate strategy game. We are all resources in this game. Depending on our individual stances, we are utilized, mobilized, managed, positioned, deployed, manipulated, ignored, silenced, or removed. The game is played. Pieces are moved. Power plays are set into motion. The board shifts and changes. People suffer. People die. Our humanity fades. But it's all just part of a game -- a most dangerous game. Irshaad Hussain lives in Kanata, Ont. |
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