Balls and Walnuts
more than you ever wanted to know
Post 9/11 America: it’s an Oddworld
A lone terrorist upsets the hegemonic powers that be. Explosions, destruction of government-run factories, assassinations abound.
Who is this terrorist — Osama bin Laden? Hardly. Meet Abe, a Mudokon. One race’s terrorist is another race’s messiah.
In the second Oddworld PC game, Abe’s Exoddus, Abe led 200 fellow Mudokons to freedom, meanwhile blowing up the factories and military facilities of the evil Glukkons. Abe does this by virtue of plucky determination, cleverness (thanks to you, the gamer who controls his every move), and “scary powers” — like the ability to possess and blow up his own farts.
Meet a Glukkon.
In Abe’s Exoddus, head Glukkons Phleg, Dripik, and Aslik meet periodically to discuss their problems with the terrorist Abe. One of them, Dripik I think, says to the other two, “Where you see disaster, I see opportunity.” That’s a Glukkon for you — always looking for the profit margin.
I often wonder if our government’s Glukkons had a similar meeting on 9/12/01. Did Dick Cheney tell George Bush, “Where you see disaster, I see opportunity”? Every one of our Glukkons seems to have seized on this moment of opportunity: Cheney to grab wealth (via Halliburton), Bush and Rove to seize power, Rumsfeld to launch his own private game of Army Men.
The analogy breaks down after that. Abe’s a hero, a messiah to his people, but the 9/11 terrorists (despite their own self-perceptions) were murderers, plain and simple. In the fictional Oddworld, good and evil are clearly defined. But in our own Oddworld, the distinctions of good and evil are blurred beyond all hope of clear perception. The Abes of our world may be murderers, but how should we view our own leaders, who through their vanity and ineptitude have caused the death or injury of thousands of individuals, American and otherwise?
I’m afraid we live in a world full of Glukkons. The rest of us are Mudokons, but, unlike Abe, our powers are limited.
D.
I think I’ve dated the Glukkon… and if my husband is really wearing a clever toupee, I may just have married him… but he, too, has the ability to blow up his own farts.. or at least, start some nasty chemical warfare.