Sunday, August 13, 2006

Guide to Understanding Contemporary Geopolitics

I've thought for quite a while now that the entire notion of the war on terror, much less its rhetoric, was a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. I might have made this clear with my previous post on the vapid and meaningless phrases that have quite unfortunately destroyed the possibility of talking about politics for all of us (this is why we can't have nice things).
However, if you can't find a suitable madman to write the contemporary history of the War on Terr', then why not get the next best thing--engrish. All your Base are Belong to Us is the semantic equivalent to War on Terrorism. That's right, as one set of meaningless drivel enjoys its popularity, let us not forget another which prefigured it more than 10 years. If I may be allowed the indulgence, a recap and then some textual analsysis:



Now let's say 2101 is just 2001, easy enough right?
"What Happen? / "Someone Set Up Us the Bomb!*"
We are shocked by the destruction of the Twin Towers.

The communique with C.A.T.S. (we can presume the acronym to stand for Cowardly and Terroristic Saboteurs) is a simple paralell with Osama Bin Laden- of indeterminate origin, CATS' message is cryptic and eschatological ("you have no chance to survive make your time" [make peace with God, perhaps?]) Also, noting the Commander (In Chief)'s seeming familiarity with CATS, the astute analyst may recall the US government's initial support of the Afghani Mujahaddin wherein Bin Laden recieved his training and roots. The Captian's shock is clearly that of a lord whose vassal has sought to overthrow him. CATS furthermore appears to our beleaguered war president...err space captain... as a mix of tradition and technology, a man-machine who is nonetheless garbed in a flowing cloak or gown. How can we not but think of the postmodern, cybernetic conglomeration of guerilla net-warfare and a modernist Wahabbism which seeks to regain the legitimacy of an unreachable past (the cloak).
*It is worth additional mention that the Mechanic state that "Someone set up [them] the bomb". There can be no doubt that we are dealing here with the conspiracy theorist, believing that the acts of destruction were somehow perpetrated from within the ship's crew. C.f. Charlie Sheen, Jim Hoffman, et. al

"All your base are belong to us"
Interpretations of this line may vary widely, but it seems we can posit some possible (non-contradictory) meanings:
1) CATS is being ironic, stating that the Republican Base, significantly vested in petrochemicals and similar fossil fuel related enterprises, has been destablized and put under the thumb of a radical, robo-fascist ideology. This base will do anything to maintain its supply of oil, even if that requires prostituting itself to radical cyberneticist fanatics.
2) CATS is referencing the bombings of several embassy-planets in 2098, stating that these foreign 'bases' were recaptured
3) CATS held in his hand a list of two hundred and five [people] that were known to the Secretary of Planet as being members of the Robonist Party and who nevertheless were still working and shaping the policy of the Planetary Department. CATS was exposing his own complicity in the 'Purple Scare' of the 2050's, and thus showing how the government's ruthlessness in persecuting Space Communists, even by means of recruiting, arming, and training cyborgs.

Further translations of the game text (not found in this video yet freely available on the internets) have the captain stating "Take off every Zig!!...For Great Justice" Here we see the beginnings of attacks using prototype Zig technology to fight CATS and his allies wherevery they may hide. Indeed, the very end of the game hints at the perpetuity of the war on Galactic Terror and the frustrated ambitions of the Afghanistar war:
Congratulation !! A.D.2111 / All bases of CATS were/ destroyed./ It seems to be peaceful./but it is incorrect./CATS is still alive./ZIG-01 must fight against CATS again./and down with them completely ! Good luck.


This all seems evident enough.

2 Comments:

Blogger Mike said...

tantalizing exegesis! i'm left with a question though: what's the meaning of his eyepatch?

11:18 PM  
Blogger shrf said...

He git that in 'Nam

7:14 PM  

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