Lvl 12: The Fallout Franchise

           I've known about Fallout. I've heard about it's name multiple times, but I never got to play it until when Fallout 4 came out last year. Besides its unique battle mechanics, interesting characters, I also fell in love with the different stories told in all four games. And I'm not the only one. The background story in the Fallout universe is so interesting that there are constantly fans making theories and sharing them to one another, trying to piece events together into a coherent in game universe lore. When I heard that we had to write a research paper on an artifact concerning war, I instantly thought about doing it on the Fallout franchise. I have always been really interested in things concerning nuclear warfare, especially after learning about it in US history class in high school. Nuclear warfare is truly devastating, and as human beings we like to think of hypothetical results before doing something so dramatic. The Fallout franchise is one of the results of this type of hypothetical thinking. 

          The early timeline in game is not so different to ours, but somewhere round 1945 different historical events led up to the Resource Wars and then the Great War that created the Fallout world as we know now. It also caused the world to be forever stuck in the aesthetic of the 1950's. The Great War was basically different countries launching nuclear missiles at each other as a last struggle to survive, which killed off most of the world's population. Some who survived lived in vaults for a long time, which were built by a company called Vault Tec. Following the progression of the game, players find that Vault Tec isn't completely innocent and good either as many vaults were used for experimenting. Others who were less fortunate had to survive in the hot radioactive desert and formed their own factions. Players usually play as a vault dweller and due to various reasons were forced to leave their vault and venture out into the radioactive world. I think through researching the Fallout universe it would be interesting to see how the game shows us one possibility of what could potentially happen after a nuclear war. It could show us the effects of nuclear war on the environment, the living things, etc. It could also show what would humans be like without a real government being in control of everything. It would also be interesting to see the propaganda in game and how it is different to the propaganda we have in real life. 

          Overall I think it would be beneficial for me to do my research paper on a topic that I really care and would like to learn more about. Some research questions I would ask would be "Does Fallout do a good job of accurately portraying the dangers of nuclear war and general war?" "What does the popularity of the game say about people's views about war?" "What is a benefit of using video games as a medium to portray war?" "How is the in game propaganda similar to real life propaganda?" The Fallout franchise is packed to the brim with different war experiences and I believe it would be very interesting to see the parallels to real world experiences.  

Lvl 11: Thoughts on the Selective Service System

          I casually asked my friend the other day if he has any war experiences, like recruitment calls. I was asking just for fun, and I wasn't really expecting anything since I never heard him mention anything about the military before. To my surprise, he answered yes. "Wait, seriously?" I remember asking him, super surprised. "Yeah, like a letter from the selective service system. You're supposed to fill it out and send it back...and then you might get drafted someday." He said, all nonchalantly. "There's this little box that you have to check off to say that you'll serve in the army if you get drafted instead of running off to a foreign country..." He then proceeded to tell me the story. The letter was sent to his old home address, and since he was traveling in Japan at the time, he had no idea about the letter, and no way to correct the mistake. So by the time he got home and found out about the letters, the government had already sent him multiple threatening letters about how he was committing a crime, that if he doesn't respond promptly they would have to use force, which is basically to throw him in jail. They happened to get in contact with the people in charge just in time to avoid a potential life in prison.

          It was odd how the story stuck out to me, besides the fact that I've been learning about similar topics in HumCore lately. I knew about the selective service system. I knew that all American men will have to register once they hit 18. I knew that by not registering, they would technically be committing a crime. These are all normal, socially accepting things right? Why didn't any of this seem right to me? 

          After sacrificing a few hours of sleep to ponder upon this mystery, I figured a few things that didn't sit right to me. 

          First of all, not signing up for the selective service system seemed to be treated like a heavier crime like treason. Government officials try to track down young men and put them in jail, and waste their precious life away, simply because they didn't sign the papers that could draft them into the army. It doesn't matter if these men didn't want to join the army. It didn't matter that they could've lost the papers, the government themselves accidentally made a mistake, etc. The government is putting more resources in the selective service system than in, perhaps, finding child pornography online and removing them, and catching pedophiles. It just seems to be unjust penalty, and ignores the free will of young male citizens.

          Second of all, why men? I didn't expect my friend to have that kind of experience because I didn't have it either, and it was the norm for me. It has recently been proven that women can serve at the front lines of war just like men, so why aren't women drafted? Not like I want to be drafted, of course, but this seems to create "evidence" for misandrists that "women are privileged" because we aren't forced to sign up for the military. But in reality, women aren't drafted because we are seen as lesser than men. This isn't chivalry like some would claim, it's plain sexism. 

          Finally, I still don't understand why we still have the selective service. It's a waste of tax dollars ($24 million). An all-volunteer approach ensures that only the best-suited people end up in the military.  A draft does the opposite. It shames those who aren't willing to join the military, or those who are unfit. It violates personal liberties. Overall, our military power and spending is far greater than the rest of the world, therefore I don't believe we need more young men throwing their lives away to do things they don't want to do. 

          I cannot say that I am unbiased. I know that I am mostly anti-war, and I dislike the military due to the toxic masculinity it is known to produce. There's probably many more problems that I didn't even address in this blog. I just hope one day I can stop worrying about my friends suddenly drafted of to some war their don't want to fight for simply due to their gender. I hope that's not something too big to look forward to in the future.