I grew up watching a peer playing many videogames (and sometimes also playing them myself). The ones I preferred were the mindless simple ones, like Tetris or Donkey Kong. But my peer liked the ones where they—or should I say, he, since that’s the pronoun this peer goes by—preferred the world domination ones. Like, for example, Civilization. (Risk was his favorite board game, for reference.) I’ve been thinking about that a lot lately, in the middle of this attempt of tech bros to tear down our, well, our civilization, in an effort to enrich themselves and rebuild it as they wish to, without reference to the actual human lives that are being affected in the process. In this blog post I’ll share some insights about this as someone who’s studied media effects and narrative theory during the course of my PhD and discuss why some of the pushback tactics, especially the ones regarding storytelling, have been effective, and need to continue.

My Background and Standpoint

So yeah, as always I’m coming at this from the perspective of a communication scholar who grew up in as a pastor’s kid in a right-leaning moderate denomination (one that has recently gone full f*scist, chastising the LGBTQ+ affirming churches in the denomination).

And yeah, as mentioned above, I grew up playing a lot of videogames alongside this peer I mentioned—and often just watching as he did this thing. (As a related note, this was the same peer who used to make me listen to Rush Limbaugh in the car–I talked about that here.) Which ironically meant that I spent a lot of time listening to Monty Python singing the Lumberjack Song while watching this peer build and collapse various civilizations.

Ah, the Videogames and Violence Question—That Old Chestnut

Later, while doing my PhD, I took a course on media effects research. And while it isn’t exactly my specific area of research—without getting too nerdy on you, the people who do this kind of research mess a lot more with statistical analysis than I do, while I swim in the waters of narrative theory and rhetorical analysis—I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how they may have possibly been asking the wrong questions when it comes to media effects, especially the impacts of video games and violence.

See, a lot of research has been poured into the question of whether first-person shooter videogames cause kids to go out and literally shoot people up, and the answer has always been no, not really.

But What About Sociopathy and Games Like Civilization?

But with the evidence of these new global developments, I’m wondering whether we need a new study on whether games like Civilization are at all related to shaping sociopathic attitudes toward human life.

It’s Like They’re Literally Playing Games with Our Lives…

Because d*mn, folks, does it ever feel like these tech bros are treating us exactly like we’re those little pixel characters in Civilization, acting as though changing entire swaths of foundational things about a government suddenly is only affecting pixels rather than lives?

As though deaths of people from removing foreign aid, or cancer research in progress, or not having rangers there for search and rescue efforts, or a kid unaliving themselves in response to bullying about their family’s immigration status, aren’t really real.

Life, Death and Videogames

Because after all, in videogames, what does a life—and especially a death—matter?

Characters regenerate, as though they are lower level cats with multiple lives.

And when the game ends, well, you can just start it over, right?

Entirely Too Easy to Try to Pixelize People Who Are Flesh and Blood

It’s easy, in the videogame universe of these kinds of games, to forget that there are real world consequences to actions.

That people are more than props to be subjected to different fates. To sort of enjoy it as they squirm from different things you throw at them from the position of your videogamey god complex.

Definitely Disturbing, These Tech-Bro Oligarch Actions

Now, just to be clear, I’m not saying that everyone who plays videogames get like this. But I think we can all agree that it’s pretty damned disturbing that a few of the particularly rich ones who do—who have spent an awful lot of time in virtual videogames—are literally acting as though the world were their videogame playground.

Our Advantage: Our Humanity and Empathy

The thing we have on our side in the face of this is as follows, though: the rest of us are both real humans and most of us DO have empathy.

That latter fact is particularly the case, I do know, having studied narrative theory, for those of us who read and watch nuanced stories.

And in that fact lies one of the key strategies to fighting back the sociopathic attempts to tear down our civilization: being human. And telling stories about the humanity of the people they’re trying to hurt.

So Many Problems with Sociopathy

See, as totalitarianism expert Hannah Arendt has written in her On the Origins of Totalitarianism, “ What binds these men together is a firm and sincere belief in their omnipotence….Yet they too are deceived, deceived by their impudent conceited idea that everything can be done and their contemptuous conviction that everything that exists is merely a temporary obstacle that superior organization will certainly destroy.”

How They Get It Wrong

Rebecca Solnit has been writing lately quite a bit lately over on her Meditations in an Emergency blog about the flaws inherent in these types of beliefs, and the errors it can lead to.

Here’s a great quote from one of her recent pieces: “They’re miscalculating the reactions from foreign nationals, from politicians, from federal workers, from ordinary people; they’re underestimating solidarity, courage, principle, and misunderstanding power itself. They do not understand people, and this may be their downfall. It’s a bit staggering to see their incomprehension of the systems they’re breaking, including the federal government and economy, as well as foreign relations, the consequences that come with their actions, and their ignorance of human nature itself.”

Underestimating People They Take to Be No More Than Props

She goes on to say that “Underlying all this is an old assumption by many elites, especially the authoritarian and fascist variety, that ordinary people are weak, timid, fearful, and pretty much collapse if you say boo to them. They also tend to think we are selfish and operate only out of self-interest because they think we’re like them. They are very often wrong in very consequential ways. This misapprehension about human nature has, from at least the Second World War to G.W. Bush’s Shock and Awe plans to subjugate Iraq, driven military attacks on civilians. Their idea is that you can break morale and make people surrender through sheer brutality. That somehow ordinary people will all collapse in terror or mental breakdown and be helpless and defeated, which will weaken or undermine the country as a whole.”

The Thing Is, We’re More Than Pixels or Props

“….[But] the truth is that most of us are brave, generous, altruistic, creative as we rise to meet the demands of a sudden disaster by rescuing and taking care of each other and rebuilding the terms of survival as community kitchens, volunteer clean-up teams, and more.”

“…[E]lites, including government officials and wealthy and powerful individuals, assume the worst about human nature and act on their assumptions, convinced they’re suppressing a rampaging mob or controlling a bunch of hapless panicky people. What they’re really frightened of is the fact that in these moments they’re not in control, and the old order they sat atop is destabilized and maybe open to change.”

Empathy as a Strength

I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately from the perspective of someone who studies narrative theory and also as someone who teaches listening and listening responses. See, as I said, good nuanced story helps build empathy. That’s something these people lack. Which, as Rebecca Solnit eloquently points out, leaves them startlingly vulnerable in ways they usually don’t realize.

See, while they can tear down things in disturbingly effective ways, in pursuit of their disturbingly selfish oligarchical dreams, they still care about what people think of them. Which may seem odd, considering they expect people to be their props and all.

When Their Brutality Removes the Very Thing They Seek: Legitimate Power

But they should—after all, they only have what leadership studies call legitimate power if people do what they ask them to.

Let me say that again: they only have power if we the people give it to them through our compliance. They may try to create this fiction that brutality is power, sure. But the reality is, brutality only creates a strong opposition. If they wanted to create compliance, they would be better off tiptoeing in under the radar.

That’s the opposite of what they’ve been doing.

Now, That Doesn’t Mean They’re Not Damaging Things…

Of course, they’re doing an awful lot of damage in the meantime. For sure, there is an awful lot to grieve. But alongside that grief, we can take the stress of these times and convert that energy in our bodies, that awareness of this genuine threat to so much of what we hold dear, into organizing and action. Toward as much healthy, effective nonviolent resistance as we can muster.

Remembering We Have Power in These Times

Above all, remember that we have that power in us to deny them legitimate power, friends. We can take that power back through our decisions and our choices. (So keep not-complying, friends! Do not obey in advance! Use your voices and your actions to push back! Keep it up as much as you’re able! Come back if you need to rest!)

The Power of Storytelling

We also have our ability to tell our stories and those of the vulnerable as a way to rehumanize ourselves, to push our flesh and bone back into the pixels, as it were.

Because whether or not they want us to be, we aren’t pixels or statistics, but human flesh and blood.

The fired government workers who have been telling their stories illustrate the important persuasive power to doing that.

Piercing Through the Videogame Illusion

In telling such stories and in connecting the dots for people, we illustrate the consequences to the actions the tech-bro oligarchs are taking to break things. And in putting faces and names and families to the pixels in the tech-bros’ giant game of Civilization, we resist powerfully the sociopathic videogaming lie that both our lives and our deaths are not real.

In doing so, we punch giant holes in the gaslighting narratives—the illusions they are trying to create. And that is so important.

I could go on, but I’ll leave it there for today. I’ll end by saying, keep being human, my friends. Keep surprising the oligarchs with your humanity and your resistance to their wills.

A Final Charge

Go team #AssertiveSpirituality! Let’s continue to do what we can where we are with what we’ve got to speak up—and resist—the toxic crap toward a healthier world for us all. Rest as you need to take some breaths, but come back and keep going as you’re able. We can do this thing.

P.S. If you’re looking for some good nuanced fiction to read that’s on point these days, I strongly recommend both Lula Dean’s Little Library of Banned Books and The Lion Women of Tehran. To avoid Amazon, you can find them at your local library, including through the Libby app or through your local independent bookstore through Bookshop.com.

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