Pixellated Peace

At Popehat, Clark takes an orbital view of the recent dust-up over ethics and morality in the video game industry. His point: the scuffle is just the latest battleground between the two factions that have been duking it out since time immemorial. Call it blue vs red, freedom vs authority, or forager vs farmer if you want, but it's just more of the same. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

Curiously omitted is some pretty good news; as far as deep cultural conflicts go, this tempest-in-a-teakettle is remarkable for being so peaceful. Yes, there's a lot of hot rhetoric going around, and some threats of violence serious enough to inconvenience some people, but there is a pointed lack of the taking up of arms or indeed, much of anything that could rouse partisans to do much else besides lose a little sleep as they incessantly tweet he-said/she-said vitriol at each other.

Has the great increase in public luxury shifted the battlefield of deep social conflicts to Mountain Dew and Chee-to stained keyboards? Is this explosion of peace a happy result of the great bounty brought by a massive boost to the volume of trade available to the common man? If so, is it not in the interest of global peace to trade felicitously with members of all tribes on earth so that they might beat their swords into oculus rifts?

What could be more euvoluntary than to distract rowdy, otherwise murderous crowds of angry young men with 1080p boobs at 60 fps? Drop trade barriers, spread peace through commerce. We may not be able to quash discontent, but if GamerGate has shown us anything, it's shown us that discontent can be effectively neutered. Let that put a spring in your step, and a smile on your lips.