16 Bits of Environmental Action

It seems ludicrous now, here in the era of climate grief, when the most powerful financial entities admit that the worst is inevitable and adjust their plans for plunder accordingly, but there was a time, not that long ago, when environmentalism was hip and, even more unbelievably, hopeful. Earth Day turns 55 this year, and it's hard to imagine world that's turned farther from its founding spirit than the one we occupy now. Sure, the Captain Planet era seems hokey and naive now, when we're aware of terms like "greenwashing" and carefully constructed messaging that shifted the onus of eco-consciousness from massively polluting corporations onto consumers and the general public. Cynical ad campaign or not, effective or not, it was still a message of awareness and caring. As we aim our society straight at the wall of climate catastrophe and allow techbros to drop ever more LLM bricks on the fossil fuel gas pedal, it's worth it to remember that, thirty years ago, we were still allowed to talk about this... even in goofy-ass video games.

Bleak as all that seems, this isn't a doompost. Hope, as people have been saying more and more lately, is a form of praxis, particularly when we're repeatedly told how powerless we are. And while the focus-tested cool avatars of kid-friendly 90s environmentalism may have been running cover for corporate blameshifting, they also presented activism and solidarity as ideals rather than apathy or ceding power to the wealthy and elite. At the very least, reclaiming these figures presents an alternative to the sheer infuriating nonsense showered upon us by reactionary oligarchs and their cowed (or complicit) media propagandists like unending torrents of acid rain. We're told that their destructive greed will somehow produce an undefined "greatness," we're presented a reality where the only good is the unfettered power of those in control, no matter how much it hurts, sickens, and impoverishes the rest of us. Regulations, the ones Musk, Trump, and Co. vilify and murder, and famously written in blood - the blood of workers, the blood of the exploited, the blood of people like us who have the temerity to live in the world from which they absent themselves. Denying their framing is always the first step, even before calling it out. And if takes a Captain Planet or an Awesome Possum to spur that denial, then they've already helped far beyond their dubious origins. Welcome to the Resistance, Comrade Sonic.

Denying their lies is only the beginning, of course, but we can't overstate the importance of countering their unreality. It helps that they're building on myths that reinforced the status quo for previous generations and attack anything challenging their narrative from a cross-cultural or even historical perspective. A curated mythology that enforces power structures is a vital component of any fascist project, but these tend to collapse under the slightest bit of scrutiny and reaquire total commitment to belief... or rather, commitment to violently rejecting any challenge that belief. Here, that belief is that America, as God's chosen people, have the unquestioned right to any land or resource it desires, particularly (but certainly not necessarily) within its borders - and that "America" refers solely to the wealthy and powerful. Any negative outcomes of acquiring and exploiting these resources are downplayed, or, more likely, outright denied. "Climate change is a hoax," they shout as entire nations are swallowed by the all-devouring, ever-rising sea. Theirs stories are the the framework that built the Cold War, Manifest Destiny, native genocide, slavery... They are, without exception, ludicrous, silly, and unbelievable - so why not counter them with some of our own, brightly colored, fueled by cartoon energy and an unending optimism that we can do better. Not chiseled Randian ubermensch of individual achievement, but by using all our powers, combined.

This blog was created to explore the way games tell stories and what those stories mean to us.  Over that time, I've come to realize how important our own role is in the stories we experience - especially when it comes to games. Over that same time, I've also had a chance to really explore and fall in love with the 16-bit era of electronic games, the final era when audience interpretation was vital to understanding the presentation... after that, things looked a lot more like what they were supposed to be, rather than implying it to us and letting our imaginations fill in the rest.That investment means that the games, their stories and their characters, "belong" to the people who play them, perhaps even more so than subsequent eras. In which case, we might as well take to heart all the silly, over-the-top characters who fought for our habitat and the creatures we share it with. No matter how ridiculous their games were, no matter how cynically they were designed, no matter the carefully-placed blindspots in their original messaging. We need all the help we can get.

 

- B

Send questions, comments, and Awesome Possum fanfic to neversaydice20@gmail.com.