Compromise and Conceit

Buried deep in the google pile of a search on “Warhammer fantasy role-playing” I found a “scholarly article” by one Mark Wegierski, a grumpy old palaeo-conservative curmudgeon writing for the “literary journal” known as Praesidium, which appears to be sponsored by The Center [sic] for Literate Values. Praesidium, of course, stands for “Watchtower”, and like all good curmudgeons, this group have set themselves up to be a watchtower against corruption of culture and literature by that most terrifying of groups – young adults! I don’t recommend visiting their “about us” page, because it’s full of pre-literary waffle (our society is now post-literary, of course, so I presume they must be pre-literary). However, one can tease out this gem of self-importance if one does:

The academy excommunicates “universalists” without a hearing: The Center promotes selfless conduct whose humanity transcends cultural conditioning and impulse.  The academy encourages such absurd varieties of “self-expression” as exotic sexual experimentation and flippant iconoclasm: The Center defends the West’s oft-tested cultural tradition as a key to true self-discovery

So: a bunch of curmudgeons who have set their great intellects against the universities of our age, which of course were much better before the  war, when I went, and did I tell you about the time that Dave and I went fishing at the grand Rapids? It was down near Fartarses Bar, which as I say was greened over back in the day and … do you mind son, getting me a hot water bottle… ah, where was I…

… But I digress. In their issue of “Fall 2005” this genius curmudgeon has set himself the blood-chilling task of delving into the dark world of RPGs, and showing how over time they have become more sinister, more disgusting, more illiterate, and more and more representative of all the diseases of modern youth. 

Most of the article consists of a review of the history of D&D (where would we be without D&D to cop the blows for the entire hobby?), followed by a brief overview of other “famous” games like “Conspiracy X” (who knew?), and serious consideration of serious titles like “All Flesh Must be Eaten”. During this he of course makes clear the faults of D&D – one of which is its soulless reproduction of Tolkien’s world, without the values – and of the other games – Shadowrun, for example, has the fault of “revisioning” Tolkien’s world, which is an insult to his memory, which is best preserved by soulless reproduction of … oh, wait…

He then proceeds, in his rambling fashion, to a conclusion, in which we find the meat of the “argument” as to the way in which RPGs reflect on modern society, and the Yoof. Rather than bore you with neverending tedious recitations of the flaws of every RPG ever to flop in a bookshop, let us cut to the conclusion, and see what our character flaws are, which are shown so clearly by our choice of hobby:

First of all, there is the uttermost and thoroughgoing atheism and/or nihilism of many young people today. For such people, the notion of surrounding, powerful dark forces is the basis only of diversionary, jaded entertainments. It should be made clear that they do not actually believe in vampires, demons, and conspiracies—but are even more remote from believing in God.

The sheer arrogance of this rubbish beggars belief. We are nihilistic because, rather than crouching in our darkened hovels in terror of  Mr. Wegierski’s imaginary sky-fairy, we play entertaining games in which we imagine other sky-fairies, and pretend we believe in them. That, my friends, is nihilism.

But what of this nihilism of “many young people today”? What to make of it, and of the curmudgeon’s crusade against it? Is there anything more hypocritical and disgusting than to be lectured on nihilism by a representative of the generation which disordered our world? Mr. Wegierski is of the generation which demolished the job-for-life system, sent our manufacturing industries offshore to make sure there was no such thing as even a job, destroyed the pension system, privatised everything that wasn’t bolted down and voted for a leader who famously claimed “there is no such thing as society” – for 12 years! Last time I checked, Margaret Thatcher was hardly a representative of “young people today”, but it was she and her generation who created this world without social ties, and now Mr. Wegierski turns upon us for wandering, nihilistic, through the nihilistic society they created. Is there  a greater hypocrisy than this? To blame us for preferring “jaded entertainments” over a futile attempt to re-order our society in the face of the economic destruction they have wrought? When last I looked, Ben Bernanke and Alan Greenspan were not jaded 30-somethings. And then, to top it off, they wonder at our inability to love the sky-fairy they invoked while they did it.

But Mr. Wegierski happily goes further, finishing his paragraph abut our ills with this gem:

Yet, those who indulge in these amusements in a longstanding and obsessive fashion may open themselves up to a more concrete embrace of evil.

I cannot think particularly what evil I have done, but I am intrigued to imagine the temptation of others. If the amount of role-playing I have done opens me for a “more concrete embrace of evil”, how much role-playing must George Bush have done, to prosecute a war of choice on a defenseless nation, killing a million people? I can see now, Pol Pot in his lair furiously rolling the d20s, every hour of playing rendering his regime that little, tiny part more evil. Never have I seen Kissinger with a Dungeon Master’s guide under his arm, but he must surely have the entire set, from every edition. There is evil, my friends, but Mr. Wegierski is so busy worrying about Warhammer 40k comics that he seems to have missed it. 

Or has he? For Mr. Wegierski is certain as to the origin of our nihilism and atheism (rest assured I am know its origin Mr. Wegierski – we watched your generation screw up the Vietnam war, the cold war and the detente – you can fuck off if you think you will blame us for your nihilism). He observes

Secondly, RPG’s can flourish only in a history-less milieu, where there are no identifications with the long history of one’s nation or people. It is also a milieu of highly pampered comfort. These young people have virtually never felt any real deprivation in their lives, nor confronted sharp existential dilemmas such as those in a world living under the shadow of Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union. These young people have never faced a real test of character or conviction.

and continues

Although we are now said by some to be engaged in “World War IV”—which might contribute to an atmosphere of “moral clarity”—millions of Americans and Europeans appear entirely unaffected by the necessities of the struggle.

thus enabling him to finish, with the flourish of the truly professional soggy-sao eater,

The self-absorbed participation in imaginative or pseudo-imaginative exaltation as mere entertainment is possible only in a late modern milieu where a person has usually never had to do real work, real thinking, and real fighting.

Now, there is hypocrisy and then there is rank, callous, stinking, disgusting, immoral, lying filth like this. Mr. Wegierski’s generation, not content to wreck our economies and vote to dissolve our society, have  left us with the greatest problem of an age – global warming – which we will have to fix, and soon, probably by doing a lot more thinking they have done during the last 15 years while they callously denied its imminence. And their politicians – the Kissingers and Bush Seniors and MI5s of the 80s – built up the festering evil of al Qaeda, just in time for their retirement, so that they could sit in armchairs declaring that the generation dying in the sand in Afghanistan “never had to do real fighting”. Was it not Bush Jnr who declared that we should not tighten our belts in this war, but “keep consuming”? That, my friends, is the nihilism of one of Mr. Wegierski’s generation, who never did any real thinking or fighting, but a lot of draft dodging and cocaine blowing. Of course, they are good christians, while we are atheists, so the fault lies with us, and from their armchairs they will be sure to blame us for the problems they created. One can only hope that Mr. Wegierski’s armchair is near the rising sea.

So which jaded entertainment shall we choose, my friends? Sitting back blaming others for the problems we created in the name of a voodoo god, or sitting around with our mates pretending to be clerics of a voodoo god? It seems to me that the latter sure beats shifting the deckchairs on the Titanic while we wait for Mr Wegierski and his mates to shuffle out of the bridge…