Salman Rushdie, he of the Satanic Verses, occasional fatwa and video games – yes, really – has proposed a solution to the problems of the Middle East.
“I often think that the best way to liberate Iran is just to drop Nintendo consoles from the air… And Big Macs.”
Now, you may be thinking that a Wii dropped from a great height could cause moderate damage but that is not Salman’s intention. He argues that there are many young people in Muslim countries who “don’t want to live according to the rules that the old grey-beard mullahs set for them.”
Apparently dropping a couple of thousand Wii’s will help by creating a “modernizing positive way of being a Muslim.” Now, you may dismiss Salman as being a bit of a nutter but he does have a genuine interest in video games, especially the narrative of games.
“One of the things that is interesting about it to me is the much looser structure of the game and the much greater agency that the player has to choose how he will explore and inhabit the world that is provided for you… [You don’t] really have to follow the main narrative line of the game at all for long periods of time. There are all kinds of excursions and digressions that you can choose to go on and find many stories to participate in instead of the big story, the macro story. I think that really interests me as a storyteller because I’ve always thought that one of the things that the Internet and the gaming world permits as a narrative technique is to not tell the story from beginning to end – to tell stories sideways, to give alternative possibilities that the reader can, in a way, choose between.”
Salman has recently written a children’s book which he describes as ‘pro-video games’ however it would be amiss for me not to mention that he also states:
“The game that my 13 year-old boy Milan and his friends all seem to be playing right now is this wild west game called “Red Dead Redemption””
Tut tut Salman, that’s an 18 rated game.
Source: BigThink / GameInformer
bigdon23
As long as the games dropped with the consoles are NOT “im a cocky american bad ass rambo and il kick all yall asses” type of games i think it would be positive, but the type of game discribed above will only infuriate people further
DJ-Katy
Salman Rushdie is far from a nutter, he is a man of great insight AFAIK. The principle of airdropping in large quantities of goods and services available in the so-called ‘free world’ to create a revolution – a method of delivery unstoppable by the government – is sound.
rht992
my music teacher wanted to carpet bomb 3rd world countries with harpsichords. not sure why
Baxteros
This reminds me of Edward de Bono’s suggestion of issuing Marmite. The bread in the Middle East is generally unleavened so it’s his belief that a lack of zinc is causing men to be onery which could be addressed by the consumption of Marmite.
GranTurismo-Disciple
He argues that there are many young people in Muslim countries who “don’t want to live according to the rules that the old grey-beard mullahs set for them.”
Really? I saw an iraq documentary the other night and all the young kids where in schools holding AK-47s learning to kill our troops.
Spence1115
The filter even stops the word documentary from going by uncensored? Oh lord…
/off topic
Whilst I understand his viewpoint, what right do we have to force people to change in other countries?
solidsteven
We don’t, he is bloody nuts. And he is suggesting that it is alright for kids to play 18 rated games.
minerwilly
We should make thousand of clones of Salman Rushdie then airdrop them all over the Middle East and this will keep them occupied instead of focusing on the evil west all the time .