I just got through watching a CBC documentary about video games, one of the most depressing things I’ve ever seen. And I’ve seen and heard a lot of really depressing stuff. I’ve been living for quite some time now, and, to be honest, the bad news about the state of the world has really piled up. You know how some old people are glad to be leaving the world and its problems behind. Suddenly I have insight into that urge to say, “Good luck, fellas!” on a death bed.

Let me explain. Remember after Super Mario Brothers how all these violent games came out and there was a lot of tut-tutting about them. Well, that’s all it was. Tut-tutting. There was real money and power behind them and so, twenty years later, they’re still with us, and more violent than ever. Incredibly violent. There’s a game called US Army and due to its widespread use by the young men of America, the recruiting offices have been able to meet their targets. There’s no longer any talk about needing the draft. Young men are lining up with itchy trigger fingers to kill those little brown people. They’ve practiced for hours with a gun in their hands, an accurate replica in appearance and recoil action to the ones in the hands of men in Iraq and Afghanistan. They’re even familiar with the terrain when they first set foot in the countries because the game designers have studied the real places and replicated them in their backgrounds. These games are called “gun in hand” games. The US military has been in on the design of the games. We see these designers holding the real guns to get the feel of them so they can make the games more real. The young designers seemed idiotically detached from the violent nature of what they were creating. Perhaps like the clever, eager atomic bomb inventors.

Recently, a teenager in the States walked into his school and shot eight people dead, five of them in the head. Law enforcement officers were amazed at the kid’s accuracy. A lot of these video games give extra points for shooting someone in the head. We are training young men to be desensitized killers. The victims are all Arabs, of course. Imagine the impact of these video games on the youth of the Middle East and in fact on youths worldwide that aren’t of a milky white complexion. How must they feel to be bumped off like flies, dying and bleeding all over these games. I’ll tell you. Not very good.

Things have been dropping from a great height (36,000 feet, to be exact.) on a dehumanized enemy for a long, long time. I know that. But that doesn’t make all of this right. Our spiritual natures are being overwhelmed by a dehumanizing, mechanized evil force. And I stand powerless against it.

I have so much to say and so little space. This is like a haiku. When I first watched Japanese TV, 25 years ago, I was stunned by the constant representations of beauty on the screen, butterflies in flight, close up, flowers, laughing cute children, etc. It was a shock to the system. I know Japan has its problems, but you could feel a respect for nature coming at you from the screen. It’s a bit different now over there because 25 years is a long time and there’s been a relentless westernization going on, as there is in the rest of the world.

To counteract all this masculine, hateful, ugly violence that has engulfed our world I propose we put Vishnu instead of Shiva in control. Let’s see babies and smiling children on billboards, TV and magazine covers. Let’s deck ourselves out in colorful costumes and flowing robes in brilliant colours and walk around like birds of paradise. Ditch the greys, browns, blacks and camouflage designs that we live in. Let’s listen to uplifting music that makes our spirits soar. Why not? It’s all just a mind set. There’s beauty everywhere. Let’s use beauty as a weapon against spiritual evil. Something nasty has taken over our collective mindsets and it’s time to switch the channel. All this ugliness, aggression and fear of the other is being spoon fed to us. While pirates, murderers, bastards of all description run the world. It should be possible to turn it around. It’s definitely time for a “Beauty Offensive”. Masters of war will recoil at the sight of laughing babies.

Why my suggestions sound Pollyanna-ish is because the world is run by these men and for these men. To suggest a feminine slant to life sounds absurd. But let’s see gurgling, smiling babies everywhere. And breastfeeding mothers in beautiful robes with rings on their fingers and bells on their toes. Let’s have over the top beauty for young, old, fat, thin. And laughter, chuckles, giggles and belly laughs. These are my weapons of mass induction. I want to reclaim the word “mother” as well, as an honoured word in the lexicon, while we’re at it. Mother Theresa always said she was trying to produce something beautiful for God. Perhaps Beauty is the opposite of Evil. Freedom from ugliness and Evil! Beauty now!!


When I was about 7 years old I stood in my cousin’s bedroom. As well as the ABCs, she had pictures of the world’s people in national dress as a frieze around the top of the walls. I was familiar with the song “It’s a Small World After All” and remember it running in my head as I looked at all the costumes, the Mexican in his sombrero and poncho, the Thai girl in headdress, dancing, the Russian girl decked out like a Ukrainian in ribbons. I felt flooded with a sense of well being and thought, all these people all over the world, living their lives, just like me. And wishing me well. What a fascinating, wonderful, beautiful world, I thought. And it is.