What Is Civilization?(currentaffairs.org)
currentaffairs.org
What Is Civilization?
https://www.currentaffairs.org/2024/01/what-is-civilization
3 comments
I started reading Sid Meier’s Memoir not even two hours ago, so when I saw this submission’s title my immediate reaction was to joke “Civilization is a game by Sid Meier in which…”. I brushed it off and clicked the link only to read:
> The ‘Civilization’ game series inadvertently defines the exclusive club of ‘civilized’ people in the world as Western, European, and settler colonialist.
The joke ended up being the coincidence.
> The ‘Civilization’ game series inadvertently defines the exclusive club of ‘civilized’ people in the world as Western, European, and settler colonialist.
The joke ended up being the coincidence.
What is civilization? A myth.
>As a millennial cis white man disillusioned with war, nation-states, and toxic masculinity, I find that there is a transgressive thrill in virtually enacting the kind of ruthless world conquest that allegedly has no place in the world today. I salve my guilt in such playthroughs by selecting underdogs from history, imagining a world where the Maya, for example, last until the postmodern era and conquer Washington, D.C., the center of contemporary military and economic hegemony.
White savior roleplays as Mayan for "good" reasons.