In article <cnh89t$5d...@news.Stanford.EDU>,
Michael Chapman Martin  <mcmar...@Stanford.EDU> wrote:

Yeah, I should expand on my previous comments a little more, I think.
Clearly, the main point of the game was absurdist semi-black humor; I
didn't list it before only because it's obviously a motivation. I'd
also agree that the game as a whole doesn't work particularly well --
like I said in my review, I was feeling pretty burned out on politics
when I played it, and I don't find absurdity to be inherently funny in
large quantities. That said, it's interesting to try and work out what
the author was trying for. I think that you're mostly right that it
was intended as a presentation of a clueless American-centric
viewpoint on the world, but I think the real point is that it's
basically a *concession* to that viewpoint, not a parody.

There's that famous quote from a Bush aide about the "reality-based
community", where the aide says "...We're an empire now, and when we
act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that
reality -- judiciously, as you will -- we'll act again, creating other
new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will
sort out." To me, WCTM is saying to conservatives "fine, you win,
here's the world how you want it." And for liberals, it's a perfect
encapsulation of their political situation: they go along nodding
their heads, patting themselves on the back for being so
historically aware and knowing all along that it was the US who backed
Saddam -- only to get to get the end of the game and discover they've
been completely outflanked. All their "education" and "diplomacy" and
"reality" is worth exactly squat compared to force and a determined
enough assertion.

The subtlety, then, comes because even though the author's presenting a
viewpoint they dislike but have reluctantly conceded victory to,
they've still fit in satire around the edges. Not the stuff about the
statue of Thor or the dancing diplomat, which are basically using
humor to reinforce the existing social order (they're a backslap to
"ha ha, foreigners are so funny and fundamentally unimportant", even
though nobody takes the presentation as a literal claim about the
other countries), but things like the terrorist, the inflationary
prices, the spy satellites -- in there purposely to undermine the
vision the author created.

So, yeah, when you say

I think you're absolutely right -- the PC *does* have a perfect grasp
on the world they're in. The only question left is, if you disagree
with the PC, whose grasp of reality is really more absurd?

--
Dan Shiovitz :: d...@cs.wisc.edu :: http://www.drizzle.com/~dans
"He settled down to dictate a letter to the Consolidated Nailfile and
Eyebrow Tweezer Corporation of Scranton, Pa., which would make them
realize that life is stern and earnest and Nailfile and Eyebrow Tweezer
Corporations are not put in this world for pleasure alone." -PGW