I wonder at the type of triggers a game like this sets off. Clearly I don't 
have the same trigger you have.

But I would challenge that the metaphor of antidote::Pandemic Resilience is a 
bad one. A more appropriate metaphor would be analgesic::Pandemic Resilience 
... or maybe even anesthetic::Pandemic Resilience. Without particularly 
challenging the roadmap or the near- or long-term efficacy of the roadmap, it 
looks like a *mitigation* rather than a solution. I think the underlying 
condition will maintain. [†] And if we focus too much on simply mitigating its 
effects, the underlying process might get worse over time. I've made this point 
before about COVID-19 comorbidities. I'm not a conspiracy theorist posing that 
people don't die of COVID-19. But it does seem clear that any pandemic will 
kill poor people more than rich people. There's a HUGE slice of *us* that do 
not want the economy to return to "normal" because "normal" means the continued 
wage-slavery, rampant dis-ease in a growing slice of the population, a clearly 
failing social safety net, etc.

If you want current news that's just like the news 6 months ago, consider the 
cop and his idiot son who shot a jogger because he was ... well, jogging. 
That's our "normal" economy. The pandemic has simply given us rich people an 
excuse to focus on something other than the stinking, pus-filled, rot that sits 
at the core of our society.

So, it seems to me that it's not an antidote to the poison. It's analgesic that 
will help us return to hiding the poison. Games like this help to pop the 
pustule and expose the infection. If that means the pus that  is the modern 
Trump supporter is exposed to the sunlight, then I'm all for it. I bought my 
copy this morning. >8^D

[†] I haven't read the paper, yet. So it's possible they talk about poverty and 
healthcare as infrastructure. But the up-front talk about "economic 
remobilization" sounds neoliberal to me.


On 5/8/20 8:29 AM, Steven A Smith wrote:
> I haven't heard much about the Antifa movement, nor Anonymous lately.   I 
> doubt that means they have lost their appetite for "resistance".   I suspect 
> this game is targeted more at that group than say... the Open Carry 
> RedHatters?  
> 
> A "core feature" is described as:
> 
> The unique catharsis that comes from throat-punching a billionaire ghoul who 
> would rather watch the world and everyone on it burn than lose a tax break
> 
> I am perhaps most disturbed by realizing this could be an MMO, effectively 
> recruiting a large number of young (mostly men) sheltering in place in their 
> parents basements, just waiting for the trigger to boil up and out like so 
> many termites or fire-ants.   
> 
> Some of the theoretical work in interreality 
> (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mixed_reality#Interreality_physics) seems to 
> provide some foreboding around the "alternate realities" that are emerging 
> with our pan-global mediation OF reality.
> 
> As an antidote to this kind of stuff, I'm  just now watching the SFI 
> discussion on the topic of Pandemic Resilience:
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K63Y6uU7j18

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