Tea Party Zombies Must Die! What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

One thing hasn't changed in America, since the days of our founding fathers: America is in a state of change. Even this country's exact location has shifted: Thanks to continental drift, we're a bit over 19 feet farther away from England than we were 235 years back.

Which doesn't make much of a difference, really.

Change Happens

Other changes have made a difference, like the invention of the cotton gin and transistor. Or the passage of the 13th Amendment. Or the 18th.

Some of the changes eventually worked out. Others, like prohibition, must have looked good on paper - but not so much in the real world.

Change Hurts

Even changes that turn out to be fairly good ideas - like Salk vaccine - upset at least a few folks. Like I've said before, change hurts.

And quite a few folks are scared of change. Understandably, since they've gotten used to the status quo: and aren't interested in rearranging a fairly comfortable life.

I think that fear of change is part of what gets folks ranting against the evils of new technology: and the other party getting more seats in Congress.

Then there's this sort of thing:

"A New York-based video game developer has set his virtual crosshairs on Republican and conservative political figures in a game called 'Tea Party Zombies Must Die,' which allows players to indiscriminately slaughter politicians like Michele Bachmann, Mike Huckabee and Sarah Palin...."
(FoxNews.com)

Killing Politicos for Fun: It's Just a Game, Right?

I don't know if "catharsis" is still a cool word. "Closure" seems to have replaced it as something people who hurt want to get.

The idea of "catharsis" in pop psychology was that if you were angry at your boss, you should imagine repeatedly striking his head with a blunt instrument, cutting his body up into little tiny pieces, and stomping on the pieces. Or whatever destructive fantasy you thought would release your anger.

Then, as I recall, someone noticed that running simulations helps folks learn how to do something. And helps them reduce inhibitions against some behaviors. Like killing the boss. Remember when "going postal" entered the language?

Still:

1. Tea Party Zombies Must Die is just a game
   • Right?
2. Nobody's going to actually shoot a respected political figure
   • Right?
3. I mean, that'd be wrong
   • Right?

By the numbers:

1. Right, with qualifications -
   Tea Party Zombies Must Die
   • Is a first-person shooter
     • Arguably a sort of tactical simulation
   • Simulated targets are
     • Real people or
     • Unidentified members of a real group
2. Wrong
   • Remember Gabrielle Giffords?
3. Right, with qualifications -
   • The Catholic Church prohibits intentional homicide
     • Catechism, 2268-2269
   • United States law prohibits many forms of homicide
     • "Murder (United States law)," Wikipedia
       • Which I'll grant is far from a legal treatise
   • Homicide for personal revenge has been a right
     • Think Vendetta

If you're waiting for a rant about the Godless New Yorkers Out To Murder Decent Hard-Working Americans, you'll have a long wait. That's not gonna happen.

I will, though, say that times are changing - on a scale I haven't seen since the '60s and '70s - and quite a few folks are scared. Particularly, I think, those with a stake in the establishment.

At times like these, I really don't think it's a good idea to encourage folks to shoot people they don't agree with.

Even if it is 'just a game.'

Related posts:

• Dealing with change
  • "9/11, Just War, and 'Death to Mickey Mouse' "
    (September 11, 2011)
  • "Evolution, Space Aliens, and Two Millennia of Dealing With People"
    (July 5, 2011)
    Particularly
    • Change Happens
    • Discussion, Not Rants, at the Holy See
  • "Same Mission, Same Basic Message, New Century"
    (May 31, 2011)
  • "Modernism, Luddites, Catholicism, and Godzilla"
    (April 7, 2011)
  • "Are You a Boy, or Are You a Girl?"
    (September 26, 2009)
    Particularly
    • Time Passes, Change Happens
    • Culture, Common Sense, and the "Effete" Practice of Men Growing Beards
      • You can't make this stuff up, folks
    • Change Happens: Deal With It
• Anger mismanagement
  • "Reason, Emotion, and
    'Take These Son-of-a-Bitches Out' "
    (September 6, 2011)
  • "Rambling About Tucson, Sudan, and Prudence"
    (January 9, 2011)
  • "Lemming Tracks: Assumptions, Change, and the Tucson Two-Step"
    Apathetic Lemming of the North (January 18, 2011)
  • "Gabrielle Giffords, Others, Shot: Prayer Wouldn't Hurt"
    (January 8, 2011)
  • "Arizona Representative Gabrielle Giffords Shot: Utterly Unacceptable"
    Apathetic Lemming of the North (January 8, 2011)
• Getting a grip
  • "First Amendment Suspended for 9/11 Memorial Service: Wrong, but Understandable"
    (September 10, 2011)
  • "Separation of Church and State, Assumptions, and Fear"
    (September 2, 2011)
  • "Freedom, 9/11, the War on Terror, and Accepting Differences"
    (September 11, 2011)
  • "Cultural Chaos, Divisiveness, and CNN"
    (April 1, 2010)
  • "Pro-Life Americans Declared Terrorists: It Can't Happen Here?"
    (July 6, 2009)

In the news:

• "Video Game Targets 'Tea Party Zombies,' Fox News Personalities"
  Joshua Rhett Miller, FoxNews.com (September 9, 2011)