Eoghann Irving's Blog, page 8

So They’re All Racists Then?

This is one of the key points of contention and misunderstanding that I see from both sides online. The majority of people believe that being called a racist is an extremely negative thing (though there are a small minority who clearly relish it), but these is no clear agreement on what it actually means to be racist.

That lies at the heart of a lot of the communication problems when it comes to politics and social issues. On the right there is a feeling that the left just labels everyone as racists and are using it as a blanket insult. On the left there's a feeling that those on the right are dismissive of fundamental human rights.

Part of this stems from a fundamental difference in understanding of what the word even means. Like so much of English there is more than one definition:

Definition of racism

1:  a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race

2a :  a doctrine or political program based on the assumption of racism and designed to execute its principles

b :  a political or social system founded on racism

3:  racial prejudice or discrimination

When a lot of people hear the word racist or racism they think of the first definition. They think about lynchings and beatings and extreme language. Not surprisingly if someone suggests that they are racist, they are deeply offended by the notion they'd ever do something like that. Because they wouldn't. They're fundamentally decent human beings and they treat those around them respectfully. When accused of what they consider to be a horrible act, they of course react defensively and are hostile to it. Who wouldn't?

But there are other types of racism. Milder (for lack of a better word) but potentially harmful nevertheless. What people online are often trying to expose is those subconscious thoughts and instinctive actions that may have a racial element to them

Is Donald Trump A Racist?

Over the course of the primary Donald Trump made multiple comments that meet at least one of the definitions of racism and given his political station that leads some to worry about definition 2a. And yet, many of his supporters deny that he is a racist, probably because it's just words, he didn't actually do anything.

Words, of course, matter quite a lot. But, sadly, our use of language too often lacks nuance. Society has decreed that racism is evil in this high contrast world and sure some poorly chosen words don't make a man evil?

What Trump is primarily guilty of is a combination of thoughtlessness in his word choice and at times implicitly encouraging or refusing to discourage racist language from people who claimed to support him. His reluctance to disavow the KKK is a perfect example of that. He can't stop them supporting him, but he could have been much more definitive in his disapproval.

Does that make him a racist?

It's an important question given his new role. His words have already have impact and will carry even greater weight in the next four years. He should be thinking about what that means and if he continues to make statements that rile up certain portions of the population he must be called out on it.

But is he a racist? Does saying racist things make you a racist?

And What About His Followers?

Some of the people who supported him used language very similar to Trump himself. Others used much stronger language. But a significant number of supporters, actively criticised him for his language. Yet they voted for him anyway. Consciously or subconsciously they made the calculation that other factors were more important to them than any potential racism (I'll get on to those other factors in future posts).

So by supporting him, by voting for him are they then racists too? Not by the first definition, but potentially by the 2nd and third ones right? So they're evil then! No, they're not evil. As we've already addressed they are in the vast majority basically good people.

Because here's the detail that those on the left are conveniently ignoring, I suspect in a need to hold the moral high ground.

We're All Racist

Yes Trump supporters are racist and Bernie supporters are racist and I am racist and you are racist. Even "the blacks" and "the mexicans", as our President Elect would say it, are racist.

Yes I'm playing the racist card

It is often said that we are not born racist but rather taught it, and I believe that to be true. But our brain is wired in a way that almost encourages racism. We are instinctively tribal. What we are taught as we grow up is who our tribe is. Racism is a simple extension of that tribalism.

When we talk about racism we are generally talking about the harm it can cause and as a result in a country like the United States we are talking about white people, because it's hard to do a lot of damage if you are a minority with no real power. But doing that is conflating the cause with the effect.

You can be racist and never have taken a single deliberate action or even said a racist slur. Being racist doesn't make you a horrible person, it mostly just makes you human. Because we could all be better.

Change the Conversation

Perhaps if we were to engage people in a less confrontational manner and with less moral superiority we could make more progress. Or at least, create less backlash. Perhaps if we could discuss situations and how they make us feel without implying blame on the person we are talking to, they would be more receptive to what we are saying. Ask yourself, what is more important. Feeling superior or getting through to someone?

Now you might be thinking, that I'm just asking those who are suffering the effects of racism to tolerate it. I'm not. I'm talking to all the other people, those who have implicit power simply by virtue of not being a minority.

I'm also not suggesting that people should have to patiently understand the position of someone who is screaming racial abuse at them and threatening them with deportation. Those sorts of people don't deserve tolerance, because they don't show any.

But the majority of people who voted for Trump in this election did not and do not behave that way. They are people who can be talked to and reasoned with, if you want to try.

The How/Why/What of Trump’s Victory

My mind has been chewing away at this since Tuesday night. It was obviously to me relatively early in the night that the predictions were wrong and Trump was going to win. The question is why.


 


There have been a lot of articles (and many more to come) trying to answer this question and they're all wrong. Even the ones that are right are also wrong.


 


Because there isn't a single reason. The human brain likes simple answers, but that's not how the world works. Instead it is a confluence of people and events all meshing together. You can point to the FBI investigation, or economic worries or cultural resentment or distrust of the establishment and you're not wrong but you're missing the bigger picture. And if you don't see the whole, you can't start fixing the parts.


 
It was remarkably difficult to find a neutral image of Trump, that in itself says something about our political discourse.



I didn't think Trump was going to win. I didn't think he would win the Primaries. I thought for sure people would realize they were being sold snake oil and not vote for him in the election itself. But they did and you can't just dismiss 47.4% of the country. You have to engage with them somehow.


 


A sidebar to this is that Obama's popularity sat at 56% on election day. Far higher than the vote that either candidate receive. Casting this result as purely a reaction to Obama's policies would also be inaccurate.


 


I don't favor hysterical reactions, I find them unhelpful. I don't think the world will end in a nuclear holocaust (well not any time soon anyway) but I do think this country will move in the wrong direction, and that in itself is a bad thing. But you can't place all that blame on other people.

People Need Hope
For years I've had conversations with people  about countries like Iran and I hear questions like "Why would they let themselves be run by these religious extremists? Look how bad things are for them now!" and my answer has always been simple. "Look how bad things were for them before.  They had no hope and the Ayatollah offered them some. Mistaken hope is still more appealing than no hope."

No, I don't think we're about to become a theocracy (again I stress hysterical overstatement is not helpful) but the same principle is at work here. For a variety reasons people did not feel that the Democrats (or other Republican leaders) offered them any hope.
Talking and Listening, Not Shouting
I'm still mentally unpacking a lot of this. My thoughts are far from organized (as this post probably indicates) and I'm pretty sure I'm going to have more to say on the topic, but let me end by pointing out the most surreal moment of Election Night for me.

It was listening to an interview on NBC with Glen Beck, a man I have always dismissed as a right wing loony spouting extremist rhetoric, very seriously urging people to listen to each other instead of talking over each other. And he's right. I may disagree with him on many, many, many, other things, but on this he is absolutely right. If you dehumanize and dismiss 47% of this country, don't expect things to ever get better.

They can be wrong for the right reasons. They can be wrong but mean well. They can be wrong and be fundamentally decent. Screaming and shouting leads to escalation not solutions. Problems are solved by talking. We teach this to our children. We should try to remember it ourselves.

As The Sky and Sea Burn Gold

I was a little later getting to the beach that morning but the delay was fortunate because this was the sight that greeted me as I reached the sand dunes.

As pretty as sunrises are, they get very samey if you don't have something of interest in your foreground. The beaches at Ocean City Maryland are well tended but there's not much in the way of natural features left, which can result in a bland photo. The fencing here made for some ideal framing.

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Westworld Teaser Trailer

HBO have released a teaser trailer for their new science fiction show Westworld. I watched the movie years ago and I may have been too young because I remember it being rather dull,  but the core concept is interesting so I'm curious where HBO will go with it. It's certainly a topic that's highly relevant in these days of machine learning.

Ocean City Pier at Dusk

This photo was taken around dusk and while the sun hadn't set it was getting dark. However, courtesy of an 8 second exposure it looks almost like full daylight. I think it captures the peaceful nature of the moment well.

You can see a couple of smudges where people are moving but the long exposure has smoothed out the sea in a very satisfying way and all in all I find it very satisfying to look at.

Sunrise at the Beach

While I enjoy sitting on the beach at sunrise and taking photos, they can get a little samey after a while,  particularly in this case where there was literally nothing but beach and ocean in sight. So I tried something a little different, moving the focus to the sand and having the sun in the background.

I think it worked rather well.

f/1.7 - 1/125 - 25mm - ISO160

Delicate

While my new lens isn't a macro lens in any traditional sense the narrow depth of field does make it very good for detail shots because you can isolate just a tiny part of something like this flower for example.

I'm having a lot of fun with my new lens but I need to find some additional subject matter for it I think. Maybe try some landscape shots or something.

f/2.8 - 1/2500 - 25mm - ISO160

A Rose By Any Other Name

Well it's a tea rose to be precise and you can't smell it at all because, you know, it's a photo, but quoting Shakespeare makes me sound clever and stuff. I'm still practicing with my new camera lens. The previous shots were mostly about taking advantage of the low light capability. Here though there was plenty of light and I wanted to work with depth of field.

Once you get down to f1.7 it gets really tricky to get the right bits of the image in focus. I actually misjudged this slightly and the stamen are out of focus, but the petals are nice and sharp so I can live with it. The value of that shallow depth of field is obvious though because it isolates the flower from everything else which fades into a nice blurred background.

Also look at the shutter speed when the lens is this wide open. There's not much risk of camera shake at 1/2500 of a second. This is what they mean when they say a lens is "fast".

f/1.7 - 1/2500 - 25mm - ISO 160

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The History Of Science Fiction Special — Traveller

This is post 13 of 13 in the series “The History Of Science Fiction”

Traveller wasn't the first roleplaying game or even the first science fiction roleplaying game (that prize goes to either Empire of the Petal Throne (1975) if you count science fantasy or Metamorphosis Alpha (1976) both of which were published by TSR) but it does count as the first space opera roleplaying game, it's also the longest lived SF RPG and the most influential both on RPGs and on gaming in general.

All of which makes it deserving of a History of Science Fiction special I think.

Traveller was designed by Mark Miller and published by Games Designers Workshop in 1977.  The setting and style of the game was influenced by classic science fiction authors like Isaac Asimov, Poul Anderson and Larry Niven. And that setting is certainly one of the things that sets it apart from other early science fiction RPGs.

The Dungeons & Dragons Influence

The system is not however entirely reliant on the setting. The goal (as it was common with RPGs at the time) was essentially to produce Dungeons & Dragons in space so the mechanics could be used with settings other than the Third Imperium if the games master so chose.

When you look at the original rules for Traveller it's not hard to spot the influence of D&D on the design. For a start the stats (Strength, Dexterity, Endurance, Intelligence, Education & Social Standing) fairly closely mirror the basic D&D stats) and the values were awarded using random rolling of two six sided dice. Higher scores in a stat gave an increased chance of success.

There are some significant differences too though. For example rather than simply choosing a character class, the players generate a lifepath for their character through choices and dice rolls. The result of that establishes what skills the character has. Rather uniquely it was possible for characters do die during the generation process.

Skills were another element that distinguished Traveller from D&D (which had none at all in its earliest incarnations)

The Third Imperium

The rules, however, were not what made Traveller successful. While the original game was published without any setting information GDW supported the game with a series of supplements set in Charted Space, also known as the Third Imperium after the dominant political structure in that part of space.

The Imperium was broadly speaking a feudal structure where local nobility exerted immense control over their territory. This of course made it perfect material for local adventures.

Unique, however, there was a larger structure to the universe that GDW was building. In their magazine and their supplements they gradually moved the time frame forward and certain events played out. This gave the campaign world the feeling of being a living, breathing thing. While detailed worlds did exist even back then for RPGs, this sort of story progression was unusual.

While never quite rivaling Dungeons & Dragons, Traveller became extremely popular and in essence defined what a science fiction RPG should be for at least a decade.

Mega Traveller, The Shattered Imperium and Beyond

However, the RPG industry is an unforgiving place and while fantasy now is remarkably similar to fantasy of thirty plus years ago, tastes in science fiction have changed more substantially.

In the 80s MegaTraveller was released in an effort to update both the rules and setting. Unfortunately a lot of errors in the printing created problems understanding the rules and the radical change to the status quo of the setting met a mixed reception.

Further editions only exacerbated the situation and when Game Designers Workshop went out of business and the rights reverted to Mark Miller it was hoped that he could bring a singular vision back to the game. The end result was unfortunately a series of licensed versions that did not last very long and only added to the confusion.

Meanwhile other RPG systems like Cyberpunk 2020 free of any historical baggage were able to capitalize on modern SF tastes and combine that with a modern RPG rule system. Traveller became a niche game in a niche hobby.

Most recently  Mark Miller released a 5th edition of his RPG using Kickstarter for funding, but the resulting reviews suggested that this is now a product that will appeal only to established fans of the game.

Impact Beyond RPGs

While Traveller's impact on science fiction RPGs and RPGs in general is unmistakable there has also been some bleed over into other media. In the early 80s a company called Edu-Ware released a computer RPG called Space which heavily borrowed Traveller's rule system. They were subsquently sued by Game Designers Workshop. It was another ten years before Traveller made it onto computers in legal form with two MegaTraveller titles that were met with a mixed reception.

Unquestionably Traveller's biggest influence on video games comes in the form of the early 8-bit classic space trader/space sim Elite. While one of the games creators David Braben says he never played the RPG, Ian Bell, the co-creator did and the influences are clear in the shape of some of the ships, the artwork and the nature of the game.

Traveller had more success in book form with fourteen novels having been released over the years, the most recent, Shadow of the Storm, in 2014. Also in 2014 a Kickstarter campaign gathered funds to produce a pilot for a Traveller movie. There's even a heavy metal concept album titled Traveller.

 

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Going to Awesome Con 2016

Next Sunday (6/5/16) I will be attending Awesome Con in DC and getting a photo with Peter Capaldi. Still figuring out what other stuff I will do but if nothing else I should get some good cosplay photos.

I rarely go to conventions because... well... all those people, and I basically never do photos with actors but... Peter Capaldi.

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