The current hit video game Fallout 4 carries forward its series' conceit of a future post-nuclear America that longs for its civilizational apogee. One of the ways in which this is displayed is an affection for mid-century American music, which are broadcast on wasteland radio stations (an innovation in Fallout 3, but the affection was there from the very beginning: the introductory music to the original, way back in the 1990s, set the tone).
Two of the songs chosen for this version are of interest given the "Game Gate" event that was ongoing while Fallout 4 was in construction. The designers were burned a little bit by the "Gamer Gate" flame wars, as when they released their trailer they took some flak for having defaulted to a male character. In fact, as with all of their recent stuff, you can play male or female characters without any difference -- both are not only equally capable, they are treated as exactly the same in terms of the way their stats work. The series makes no distinction between straight and gay relationships, either: all characters who are 'romanceable' are just as willing to go with a guy as a girl. Both of these conceits are extremely unrealistic, but you'd have thought they'd have satisfied the radicals that Bethesda was on their side. Not quite!
In any case, of the many songs they pulled from America's musical history for their wasteland radio, two deal with women's frustrations against men. Both of them happen to represent a significant improvement over the way male/female frustrations often express themselves today.
I like this one even better:
Maybe a subtle comment from the game designers: none of this stuff is new, but we used to be able to recognize that members of the opposite sex are both occasionally infuriating and also wonderful. You can't expect to fix the underlying tensions, and sometimes you may need to shout about it, but in the end we go together.
It is difficult to satisfy those who want supremacy, by offering equality.
ReplyDeletePost apocalyptic music for reassurance- When there is nothing to eat and baby seal oil is the only lube left for your AK.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rl5kEqQ9gec
A reminder to keep your guard up and be careful of the siren song-
a leading candidate for the best rock song ever written.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHhrZgojY1Q
The post apocalyptic face-facts reality song-by the master songwriter.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ejWwsLTHnA
for Grim, as he runs the supercharged alcohol burning rat rod through the wasteland , one step ahead of the barbarians.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=py93VWMIdYk&list=RDpy93VWMIdYk#t=9
You're looking in the right place, Grim. Culture is a more powerful force these days than bombs and WMDs. But there's more types of popular culture than merely Hollywood and the Leftist tv talking heads.
ReplyDeleteThey are probably still Leftists, but they cater to a community that was raised in the desert of the internet. The internet, not exactly the same as an indoctrination center where people did as they were told. At the time, the older generation thought that was a decay or a rejection or a rebellion of traditional values. But it may be their the salvation, given what values are present now in domination.
A generation raised to Obey Authority and to shut up when threatened socially, economically, or militarily, is easy to control when evil gains hold of Authority. A generation raised on the raceless, often sexless, world of the internet, where people act like barbarians from inception, causing people to band together in their little communities online, is a much better setup to foment a rebellion. Arrakis, children raised to fight as adults.
It's impossible to raise a generation, even 10 years ago, that would resist the Left's advance. It would only be possible if such a generation had already existed. But which American culture would give birth to such people... the Amish? Would they produce enough rebels and freedom fighters?
No. A Greater Culture was needed. Something more numerous than what the Left provided. Something nobody would expect, because it was often part of the Leftist movement as fellow travelers. Cloaked in their own orthodoxy and dogma, it was safe from persecution of heresy.
Until now.
https://ymarsakar.wordpress.com/2015/07/03/the-peasants-are-revolting-except-its-not-about-bread/
There was a good video testimony of a person online who was brought up in the community of the internet gaming, but decided to fight against feminists as a counter protester. Her testimony on youtube was interesting, but I can't find it now even though I thought I had written about it on my blog. There are other examples I did find.
I especially appreciate that last one, Raven, although you're right about the Who. Fallout only does rockabilly rock and roll, I think: that early stuff from the Young Elvis era is the late period for their nostalgia.
ReplyDeleteIf you liked those two, try this: the whole Diamond City station playlist. There are a handful of pastiches, but mostly it's classic Americana.
Don't miss "Civilization," a 1947 song that violates like every PC ideal there is. :)
ReplyDeleteLooked around in the memory logs of my blog for this one.
ReplyDeleteIn his essay “Ofermod,” Tolkien writes:
For this ‘northern heroic spirit’ is never quite pure; it is of gold and an alloy. Unalloyed it would direct a man to endure even death unflinching, when necessary: that is when death may help the achievement of some object of will, or when life can only be purchased by denial of what one stands for. But since such conduct is held admirable, the alloy of personal good name was never wholly absent.
These words describe Boromir exactly. To him, as to his father, the idea of the Good is limited to “the good of Gondor”; ultimately, to the good reputation of the Stewards and their house. Because Gondor, too, has much in it that is intrinsically good – there, too, folk spend much of their time growing food and eating it, and doing various kinds of service to one another – this remains a noble pursuit; but it is fatally flawed, for it mistakes the secondary good (the reputation of the guardians) for the primary.
Tolkien’s most direct criticism of this defective idea of virtue is put in the mouth of Faramir. He does not denigrate Boromir’s character directly, but he implicitly recognizes his flaws by making the distinction that Boromir missed, preferring the primary to the secondary good:
‘I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend.’
Originally a post from Grim's blog.
The whole idea of reputation, of social conformity and obeying the Authorities, is something I discovered to be an often excuse for disobeying one’s conscience and doing Evil.
A culture that refused to bow down to authority, yet was of sufficient hostility to the Left, with a sufficiently advanced quantity of population to explode outwards, didn't seem to exist in America any more. The survivalists and preppers were underground, off grid, quiet, waiting, training, but they weren't actively involved in the propaganda war nor did they achieve any significantly great victories, only famous defeats like the Alamo, Waco 1, Waco 2, etc.