From: Cullen Grace (grac@midway.uchicago.edu)
Date: Wed 27 Apr 1994 - 02:03:49 EEST
Hello, folks! Being a newbie to the list I rarely post. The latest encroachment of realworld flaming has moved me to respond, however.
In particular, I was especially annoyed at the recent PC hosing of the United States government and the Gulf War. The problem isn't that the US was or was not wrong but that this person was so absolutely cocksure that in this and many other cases the US is wrong wrong wrong. He thus denies the US the cultural or moral relativism that we take for granted in Glorantha. We do not accept absolutes in Glorantha, neither should we do so in the real world. (Being an Illuminate helps! :) )
Yet, there are definitely ethical questions and moral dilemmas brought up by real world events. My druthers are to explore them in the game, through Glorantha, and leave the posturing to soc.history.unmoderated.
So, to explore the ambiguities of power and progress, I turn to the Lunar Empire. Consequently,
"Was Hiroshima justified?" becomes, "To bring peace to its citizens,
was the Lunar Empire's Moonburn justified?"
"Why isn't the US doing more for Bosnia?" becomes, "Why doesn't the
Lunar Empire put a stop to the awful Maboder-Telmori slaughter?"
"Was US intervention in Vietnam justifiable?" becomes "Has the Lunar
Empire done more harm than good to, say, Tarsh Sartar and Prax?"
"What drove Lt. Billy Calley to order hundreds of civilians killed at
My Lai?" becomes, for example, "Why did the Runegate Beast Irregulars
murder hundreds of innocent Ducks during Starbrow's Rebellion?"
All of these questions are debatable. Only the latter versions, however, are the ones I would want to bring to, or hear about from, this newslist. If the debate arising from such Glorantha questions makes me think twice about events in the real world, however (to not take, say, Gulf War tri- umphalism at face value), it has been of genuine and lasting value.
Cullen Grace
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