“Look at Michael Moore. In his film Bowling for Columbine, does he really lay out a rational, reasoned argument explaining the culture of violence in the United States? No. Does seeing Charlton Heston squirm under Moore’s questioning bring us closer to the truth? No. But was that scene an emotionally powerful argument for gun control? Did the film put the issue on the table? Did it provoke millions of Americans to give serious thought to the culture of violence of America? Yes. Yes. And yes.”
The message in the first chapter of Stephen Duncombe’s Dream: Reimagining Progressive Politics in an Age of Fantasy, is that when bringing truth to a world of fantasies that hates to be shaken up you can not expect to be able to change said world but you can create a powerful message that speaks to people’s emotions and makes them think seriously about a situation. When working on our tactical media project we need to come armed with facts; enough so to make people feel uneasy as they try to counteract our message in their heads. I also believe our message should avoid being delicate, and rather be in your face. It needs to be powerful enough to force people’s attention to it.
I feel as Americans, we are so self concerned that when hearing of issues that do not relate to us or may challenge our convenience we have the general attitude of not my problem. This is do to the fact that we are sheltered from facing the issue directly. Take the Syrian refugee crisis for instance, many Americans are not happy about President Obama taking refugees into our country and have made their voices heard. If we were to focus our tactical media project on that perhaps we can bring attention to their struggles through a game. The player of the game has a chance to allow a Syrian refuge mother and child to cross their border. If they allow the refugee to cross they lose a hundred points but if they choose to put up a wall to block them then the mother and child are shot dead.
