He didn’t find his dreams…NewsCorp found him!
"Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), the surveillance arm of the intelligence services, will this month become the first spy agency to embed adverts for new recruits inside computer games.[…] The advertisements will appear as billboards in the fictional landscapes of games including Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Double Agent. They will not be written into the games themselves but will be fed into games when they are played on personal computers and Microsoft Xbox 360 consoles that are connected to the internet. GCHQ hopes to "plant the idea in the heads of younger players" of pursuing a career in the secret services.”
The emphasised sentences imply that they will be able to modify the adverts/programming to fit any need they want - even customizing it to a single individual. Scary don't you think?
He didn't find his dreams...his dreams found him
The last Starfighter was a 1984 science fiction movie, A teenager living in a trailer park becomes the best player ever at Starfighter, a stand-up arcade game that has him "defend the Frontier against Xur and the Ko-Dan armada." The night he gets best score ever in the game, he is approached by the game's fast-talking inventor, Centauri in his human form. Stepping into Centauri's vehicle (a "starcar"), Alex is horrified to find that not only is the car actually a spaceship, but Centauri is a disguised alien, who whisks him off to another planet. (not an office in
Essentially Alex lives up to his high-score reputation, kills the baddies and saves the planet…a true hero. The story ends with Alex's younger brother Louis preparing to play the Starfighter game, hoping to join Alex one day in the Star League. The movie had the tagline: “He didn't find his dreams...his dreams found him” and if you think for a second that future Tom Clancy’s will have the same romantic ending then you must be one of the owners of a 'starcar'!
This is not the first time that video games have been used as a military recruitment tool. “In 2002, The United States Army, released a free-share online game called America's Army. Players that register, and who agree to certain conditions, are allowed to have their play performance reviewed by real-life recruiters looking for potential enlistees. The game, however, was mainly designed to convince possible recruits to join the U.S. Army, not test them. America's Army is the first computer and video game to make recruitment an explicit goal and the first well-known overt use of computer gaming for political aims.
Rupert Murdoch’s media empire includes the FOX television networks, British SKY broadcasting, The Sun and Times newspapers and consequently have a undeniable influence in the way that information is presented to the general public. Rupert Murdoch is a member of the Council of Foreign Relations, watch the video to see how the role CFR plays in one aspect of
controlling the American media: CFR controls American media. The CFR was formally established in 1921, it is one of the most powerful private organizations with influence on
In July 2007 the
“Tony Blair spoke to the media mogul Rupert Murdoch three times in the 10 days before the outbreak of the
The telephone conversations were among six calls between the two men detailed by the cabinet office in response to a freedom of information request by the Liberal Democrat peer Lord Avebury. […] Lord Avebury said: "Rupert Murdoch has exerted his influence behind the scenes on a range of policies on which he is known to have strong views,the
Further examples of this media bias can be seen here: Fox Does Unto Iran As It Did Unto Iraq or this youtube video: George Galloway Confronts Sky News over its bias towards Israel - Video
It is clear from the above that Rupert Murdoch has a vested interest in promoting the war agenda, is influential in the way that news stories are presented in order to win over support from the public for that agenda. It is also clear that his corporation’s activities reach as far as using the latest technology to assist in military recruitment.
A person would be naïve to think that this is just one man on a crusade for world domination, he is of course accompanied, influenced and cajoled through membership of elitist organisations such as the CFR. It should be clear to all by now that the way these organisations show little regard for the welfare of normal rational human beings. In the book Political Ponerology: A science on the nature of evil adjusted for political purposes. Dr. Łobaczewski theorizes that:
The effects of the psychopath on the fabric of human society, especially when acting as a group, can be likened to the effects of disease on the physical body. This disease manifests as a gradual but fundamental re-structure of the social heirarchy until, in extreme cases, a pathocracy is formed: a society ruled and motivated by purely pathological values. He further asserts that the close, careful study of these effects will help man understand the cause, which can then lead to a cure for this affliction of society.
“One expert, Pat Brown, a national top criminal profiler and parent, said that these video games are causing our children to become psychopathic killers by 9 years old. Others, such as Dr. Phil McGraw (psychologist), Bill O'Reilley (Fox news), professor James Alan Fox (criminal justice expert) and Candice DeLong (retired FBI profiler) echoed similar sentiments.”
- Exposure to cartoonish children's violent video games had the same short-term effects on increasing aggressive behavior as the more graphic teen (T-rated) violent games.
- High school students who had more exposure to violent video games held more pro-violent attitudes, had more hostile personalities, were less forgiving, believed violence to be more typical, and behaved more aggressively in their everyday lives.
- Children who played more violent video games early in the school year changed to see the world in a more aggressive way, and became more verbally and physically aggressive later in the school year
So are our generation of Last Starfighter’s intentionally being trained, turned into psychopaths and then recruited by the military by video games? I would say yes! Video games and what was
considered harmless entertainment for children has come along way since pacman! Does the fact that GCHQ is placing virtual adverts in these games disturb you at all? It should!
One has to wonder whether their involvement stops at the use of video games and technology
for control and other purposes. Technology certainly exists for sophisticated psychological profiling: In May 2007 the
What is to stop military recruiters from building up psychological profiles of all young online gamers? Before the first interview, a recruiter would know how the individual reacts under stress or what is the best way to influence the individual to get the desired reaction and result. Scenarios and situations could be personally created and targeted to influence certain psychological conditions. Mix this with data-mining software currently used to monitor searches, email and browsing history and the recruiter would have all the information and tools necessary to manipulate and assess an individual, make his… but at what price to personal privacy?
Reality or fantasy?
The increasing use of all senses in video game technology, high definition TV and sound blurs the distinction between reality and fantasy. Our last Starfighter is already distanced from the reality of war, starved of objective reporting on the humanitarian disasters that the current War campaign is creating. He would be aware of who won the last series of Celebrity Big Brother but would he know that 2 million Iraqis have been killed since 2003 and a further 2 million destitute refugees?
battlefield of the future
"is developing a control interface for the militaries next generation of unmanned aerial vehicles. The researchers are building a virtual environment that allows operators to see the vehicles, the surrounding airspace, the terrain they're flying over as well as information from instruments, cameras, radar and weapons systems. The system would allow a single operator to control many vehicles."
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| ©Kevin Teske |
| Muthukkumar Kadavasal, an |
As parents we need to try and minimise our children’s exposure to the negative impact of violent computer games and media. We need to be aware just how interconnected technology companies, Media corporations and politicians actually are. We need to also be aware that these organisations do not have our best interests at heart. Will this story end just like the last Starfighter: Our children following the next into the cannon-fodder league?
We need to give our children the opportunity for them to create their own ‘tag lines’ otherwise it will be given for them:
He didn't find his nightmares...his nightmares found him!
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