Lego Star Wars was one of the greatest video games of our generation growing up. But, what if it was brainwashing us into being mindless capitalism drones? It didn't. Regardless, I'm going to write about it because I have nothing better to do. The goal of Lego Star Wars was not to beat every level. The goal was to buy literally everything in the game. You go through the world destroying everything in to gain currency. Currency which enables you to buy upgrades that make your life easier and allow you to collect currency even faster. But, you don't earn it through hard work. You earn it through destruction. You go around murdering everyone who tries to get in your way of your quest of draining the universe of its resources. The game constantly rewards you for killing and looting by giving you gold bricks which reinforces you to continue killing and looting. And then! What happens when you collect everything? You're rewarded with a giant, gold fountain that constantly spews out more and more currency for you to just hoard wealth that you don't need because you've purchased everything that can be purchased. I've cited two reasons, but this is my airtight argument into how the Lego video game franchises has brainwashed us into a world of capitalism.
For anyone who has stumbled on this, please don't take it seriously. These were extremely fun games and provided hours of entertainment for me as a kid. I can't wait until they release Lego Shawshank Redemption the Video Game in 2022.
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Everyday, it's hard to complain about being bored or sad when thousands are losing loved ones and/or working on the front lines each and every day to keep others alive. So, I'm starting off this post by saying I am very fortunate to be healthy and safe in quarantine and not have lost anyone close to me.
With that said, for anyone who is feeling anxiety or depression or just scared about that situation, it's okay. Each day is uncertain. For me, I have no job and nothing to look forward to until August 31st when I start my grad program (if schools are even open in August which there's a chance they won't be). Every day, I wake up at 11 am, eat breakfast, play video games for 6 hours, eat dinner, go to sleep. That's about it. Listen to some music here or there. Claim my unemployment check once a week, which is infuriating because I am probably making more than some minimum wage workers who have to still work through this and risk there own lives. The point is, the world is really fucked up right now. America especially. The government botched the preventative measures to stop the spread of the virus before it happened, so now thousands are dying, while many on the right want to reopen states to protect the economy while increasing a surge in the virus because "there are more important things than living." We don't have enough tests to accurately track the virus nor do we have enough resources to protect healthcare workers who are protecting us. Each day, racist acts against people of Asian descent continue to happen at a more alarming rate than before the virus. Everyday is a new Hell that we all have a front row seat to on our phones. And there's no end in sight. So, my advice to myself is to just breathe. Keep relaxing and taking each day by day. Don't stress yourself out much like I just did with that entire paragraph about how much racists and the government suck. Take care of yourself first. Make sure you are okay. If that's all you do through this quarantine, that's more than enough. If you have extra effort and are okay, call your family. FaceTime your friends. Donate to your local food bank or healthcare charities. Share only facts online. Vote out idiots from office this fall. Share positivity. Don't be racist like ever in life. That's just a few things. None of us know when this will end, but the more time we spend inside, the better chance we have our not spreading the virus and preventing as many deaths as we can. That's the most important thing. It sucks to have no end in sight and very little hope and a lot of anxiety, but they are all necessary. We will make it out of this. We have to, for all of the lives already lost. Today, Bernie Sanders dropped out of the presidential race, paving the way for Joe Biden as the Democratic nominee. It's so disheartening to see the only candidate with real ideas about change that would benefit people leave the race. Joe Biden's rape allegations aside, he has never had a real platform with any actual ideas. He's been running on a platform of "I wanna beat Trump and hey remember that guy Obama a few years ago? You all liked him and I'm competent by association." And for many, this was apparently good enough. But, for those who want actual change and are tired of companies ruling America, we wanted Bernie. Now, we don't get that.
These are dark times, where it's hard to think about anything other than the coronavirus pandemic. Unfortunately, we have to deal with the fact that millions of people never got to vote in the primaries If you're reading this, you should probably log off and go watch a movie or do a push up or something. But, thank you for coming to my page!
As I write this at the end of Week 3 of Quarantine and have already started to talk to the brick wall as if she's my dearest friend, I'm grateful that I have a medium to express myself. These are extremely hard times ahead of us. Harder than the mile run in middle school! For myself, I've turned to making this blog just to write and have an avenue to take out any fears I have and turn to when I feel hopeless. I hope that all of you have something like that, whether it's going for a run or baking cookies or dancing in your underwear or stealing money from horny Wall Street dudes on the internet. Whatever brings you joy, make sure you keep doing it! This helps me hold onto hope, which is so important. The road ahead of us is long. And it's going to be difficult. A lot of people are going to lose their lives. So, make sure you are there for your friends and family (metaphorically, keep social distancing). FaceTime them. Send them videos that make you laugh. Send an email to your grandparents. The smallest gestures will help each other. Also make sure you support and thank the people on the front lines! Health Care Workers, grocery store employees, delivery drivers, janitors, all of them! They are doing everything in their power to help everyone else. Also as you social distance, make sure you thank yourself for helping others for staying home. You don't need to be making big gestures to be important in this. Just staying home is a win. Take care of yourselves in quarantine so that we can all come out stronger at the end of this. Also, please enjoy my blog! It will mostly be movie reviews, embarrassing stories from my past, and me ranting about inequality in America. Or basically anything, this is really for me Like a journal that strangers on the internet can read. Fun! |
Rob EnglishJust a kid from Pittsburgh trying to figure out my place in the world and write some things along the way. Archives
February 2024
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