My Fears and Content Direction
Writers’ Block is awful. Especially when I like the act of writing but being completely unsure of what to say in this moment in history. My day job is also requiring a lot of concentration because of the difficult circumstances in my field right now. So regular content has not gone well and I’m a bit behind. With the busy circumstances of life and this being a side project, this has unfortunately been on the back burner. I want to write a short piece to describe my fears and think about how that can drive into authentic content without driving too much despair. In this order, these are my fears for what is growing in our world:
1) Religious Fundamentalism and Authoritarianism
This theme isn’t a new theme for long-time readers of Phenomena Gaming but I am growing very afraid at the extremes to which authoritarianism is clamping down on many countries in the world. Military crackdown on protests on college campuses and the increasing push for more war without the consent of the people is abhorrent. As is listed in my values, any action to protect an empire of any kind is immoral. Hundreds of billions of dollars are being printed to support authoritarian regimes around the world. While this practice has been going on for decades, the one thread which is not pulled very often is the thread of religious fundamentalism.
Religious fundamentalism is a scourge in all of its forms. Christian fundamentalism is rooting itself in America as a source of terror for people all over the world and minorities in America. Jewish fundamentalism (Zionism) is responsible for a genocide in Gaza. Islamic fundamentalism has grown because of the decades of oppression by the west which is leading to more terrorist violence in incidents all over the world. Hindu fundamentalism has deepened its grip on India causing harm to people of lower castes and Buddhist fundamentalism has been devastating in Tibet. While I don’t ascribe the same moral blame for all of these sources of fundamentalism, the act of fundamentalism itself is one of the greatest dangers in our world. Meaningful action is prevented because leaders in fundamentalist movement seek authoritarian leaders to get special favors after terrorism is instilled in a populace. More video games have been talking about authoritarian leadership and war which is telling of the times we are living in. A closing of our narratives because of fundamentalist influence is disastrous for humanity and all creation. I cannot stress enough how bad religious fundamentalism is and yet I don’t want this blog to only care about fundamentalism.
2) Domestic Violence and Violence in Relationships in General
It is very hard to relate to people, especially in the last couple of years. I think relationships in general have fizzled as many of us have experienced extra job responsibilities and more burdens in trying to manage life’s tasks. I know I have. However, what frightens me is the continued growth of incidents of gender and relationship-based violence. This isn’t a new phenomenon to me as being around religious fundamentalism in my high school and early college years, there are a lot of incidents of domestic violence. I’m unsure of how to respond both professionally and on this blog in response to a general trend of greater gender-based violence.
On a lesser scale, I think relationships are becoming more fragile because of the trauma and so in general it is harder to have relationships than a few years ago. I think instead of coming together as a community to support each other through complex civilizational level questions, many of us have retreated to try to prevent exposure. However, even as someone who likes to hide most of the time, I do realize the need to communal processing of harsh life events. I also understand very few are truly building rituals to do so in order to help people have a place to share their fears and feel safe to grow in doing so.
3) AI and Automation
You are only worth your output to society until a robot comes in who can do everything better than you with less requests for food, healthcare, etc. Automation is becoming a major issue, especially as Elon Musk stated today that by 2025 a humanoid robot will be made by Tesla. With unions struggling to preserve jobs for people and corporations looking for every opportunity to undercut competition, funnel wealth upward, and strengthen their hold on society, things are bleak. Right to work won’t matter in a few years if corporations no longer want to hire people, or give them so many jobs that no one can expect to do them all well. Changing how we build corporate structures is important and Phenomena Gaming is still exploring options for cooperative ownership and collaboration. Admittedly, I’m well behind where I wanted to be and my timelines are adjusting to match my new reality. However, teaching cooperative ownership is still a key goal for me in general and I think the gaming industry would do very well to think about cooperative ownership as pieces begin to decompose.
I’m afraid of many things at this point but these three are key aspects of where my content is moving based on where I am. I hope to inspire some hope but I haven’t been there of late. Thanks for all my loyal readers.
