The Spirit of an Age

“It is said that what is called "the spirit of an age" is something to which one cannot return. That this spirit gradually dissipates is due to the world's coming to an end. For this reason, although one would like to change today's world back to the spirit of one hundred years or more ago, it cannot be done. Thus it is important to make the best out of every generation.” 
― Yamamoto Tsunetomo, Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai

 Video games are fun right? but to a lot of people video games are dangerous. They fear the power video games have, they fear the privacy of the act of playing video games, most of all they fear change but really it’s just an extension of the oldest fear man has ever known; The fear of the unknown.

If there’s one thing I've learned about life is you can be sure that anything anyone finds fun there’s always someone trying to ban it for some reason. Video games supposedly will not only pollute the artistic minds of the future but also render other art forms obsolete. The reasoning being they believe that the public would rather play a video game than read a book or look at a painting and although as the author of this blog I would much rather play a video game than look at a painting or read a book it doesn't stop me from doing either. 

The libraries didn't all close when internet was born and plays weren't banned when they invented the tv. New art forms don’t replace the old, they just add to them or combine them, they cross pollinate and feed off each other, synergising; books become films become games. They don’t kill off their predecessors, they if anything; are monuments to the art that came before, because what this boils down to why art critics hate and fear and refuse to acknowledge games is because of a basic fear for their survival that is obviously completely irrational. Times and people change and video games are more popular than they've ever been but some things will never change.

People look at video games and think of a golden age where families talked and did things together and pretended to give a shit, go to church, make things, hate the same things, eat food that didn't come out of a microwave, listen to the radio, trust people, but its all bullshit. There was never a golden age of man, men have been killing each other and screwing each other over since rock met bone, and you think video games will make that worse or better? I don’t think it’ll make a bit of difference but who knows maybe it could, maybe video games could change everything. 

Time marches on we can never go back, no matter how many people want to go back before television and video games to a time where people were supposedly ‘better’ or more cultured, it just isn't going to happen and to block out the future will do nothing to impinge the mockery of the ticking clock.