Reaganized Rock: The 1983 Beach Boys Ban and the U.S. Culture Wars

In 1983, Ronald Reagan’s Interior Secretary, James Watt, decided that rock bands would not perform at the Independence Day celebration that year because they would “attract unwanted elements.” With the Beach Boys having played the event in the past, Watt suffered a backlash even from Reagan himself. In this article, I analyze the media discussions on the ideological undercurrents of how rock was defined as an idea by different people involved. I track rock’s transformation from being a target of a culture war, to the terrain for such a struggle, and finally to a tool for demonstrating ideological allegiances.</p

Epäonnistumisen poliittinen ideologia Disco Elysium -pelissä

Artikkeli tutkii poliittisten ideologioiden esittämistä Disco Elysium -pelissä (Viro 2019) epäonnistumisen tematiikan kautta. Virolaisen indie-peliyhtiö ZA/UM:n kehittämässä, fiktiiviseen maailmaan sijoittuvassa roolipelissä pelaajan tehtävänä on selvittää poliittisesti motivoitunut lynkkaus Revacholin kaupungin telakka-alueella. Tehtävää vaikeuttaa protagonistin ennen pelin alkua ottama humalaputki, jonka jäljiltä hän ei kykene muistamaan nimeään, persoonaansa tai edes maailmaansa. Artikkeli kysyy, miten absurdin humoristinen mutta synkkä peli rakentaa kuvauksia erilaisista poliittisista ideologioista (kommunismista, fasismista, kapitalismista ja sentrismistä) ja mahdollistaa pelaajan kanssakäymisen näiden ideologioiden kanssa epäonnistumisen kautta.Artikkeli pohtii epäonnistumista sekä pelimekaanisena että pelin maailmaan rakennettuna temaattisena elementtinä. Lähipeluun avulla se tuottaa analyysia pelin esittämästä maailmasta ja sen pelillisistä ratkaisuista ja kontekstualisoi sitten löydöksiään suhteessa pelin kehittäjien näkemyksiin työstään sekä pelin vastaanottoon kriitikoiden parissa. Artikkeli väittää, että pelimekaanisten ratkaisuidensa avulla peli esittää epäonnistumisen kautta näkemyksiä kuvailemistaan ideologioista ja rakentaa samalla laajempaa maailmankuvaa, jonka keskiössä on epäonnistumisen oma ideologisuus._____Disco Elysium and the political ideology of failure The article explores the portrayal of political ideologies in the video game Disco Elysium (2019) through the thematic of failure. Developed by an Estonian indie game company ZA/UM, the role-playing game sets player in a fictive world and tasks him with solving a politically motivated lynching at the industrial harbor district of the city of Revachol. The mission is hindered by the protagonist’s drinking binge prior to the start of the game, which has caused him to forget his name, persona and even his world. The article questions how the absurdly humorous and yet dark game constructs its depictions of political ideologies (communism, fascism, capitalism, and centrism) and enables the player to interact with these ideologies through the notion of failure.The article examines failure as both a game mechanical and a thematical element built into the game’s world. Through the method of close-playing, it produces analysis of the world produced by the game as well as its game mechanical decisions. It then contextualizes its findings in relation to the pronouncements of the game developers regarding their work as well as the game’s reception among critics in international gaming media. The article argues that through its game mechanical decisions, the game uses failure to create arguments regarding the political ideologies it depicts. It uses these arguments to create a wider worldview, at the heart of which lies an ideology of failure.</p

Epäonnistumisen poliittinen ideologia Disco Elysium -pelissä

Artikkeli tutkii poliittisten ideologioiden esittämistä Disco Elysium -pelissä (Viro 2019) epäonnistumisen tematiikan kautta. Virolaisen indie-peliyhtiö ZA/UM:n kehittämässä, fiktiiviseen maailmaan sijoittuvassa roolipelissä pelaajan tehtävänä on selvittää poliittisesti motivoitunut lynkkaus Revacholin kaupungin telakka-alueella. Tehtävää vaikeuttaa protagonistin ennen pelin alkua ottama humalaputki, jonka jäljiltä hän ei kykene muistamaan nimeään, persoonaansa tai edes maailmaansa. Artikkeli kysyy, miten absurdin humoristinen mutta synkkä peli rakentaa kuvauksia erilaisista poliittisista ideologioista (kommunismista, fasismista, kapitalismista ja sentrismistä) ja mahdollistaa pelaajan kanssakäymisen näiden ideologioiden kanssa epäonnistumisen kautta. Artikkeli pohtii epäonnistumista sekä pelimekaanisena että pelin maailmaan rakennettuna temaattisena elementtinä. Lähipeluun avulla se tuottaa analyysia pelin esittämästä maailmasta ja sen pelillisistä ratkaisuista ja kontekstualisoi sitten löydöksiään suhteessa pelin kehittäjien näkemyksiin työstään sekä pelin vastaanottoon kriitikoiden parissa. Artikkeli väittää, että pelimekaanisten ratkaisuidensa avulla peli esittää epäonnistumisen kautta näkemyksiä kuvailemistaan ideologioista ja rakentaa samalla laajempaa maailmankuvaa, jonka keskiössä on epäonnistumisen oma ideologisuus. &nbsp; Disco Elysium and the political ideology of failure &nbsp; The article explores the portrayal of political ideologies in the video game Disco Elysium (2019) through the thematic of failure. Developed by an Estonian indie game company ZA/UM, the role-playing game sets player in a fictive world and tasks him with solving a politically motivated lynching at the industrial harbor district of the city of Revachol. The mission is hindered by the protagonist’s drinking binge prior to the start of the game, which has caused him to forget his name, persona and even his world. The article questions how the absurdly humorous and yet dark game constructs its depictions of political ideologies (communism, fascism, capitalism, and centrism) and enables the player to interact with these ideologies through the notion of failure. The article examines failure as both a game mechanical and a thematical element built into the game’s world. Through the method of close-playing, it produces analysis of the world produced by the game as well as its game mechanical decisions. It then contextualizes its findings in relation to the pronouncements of the game developers regarding their work as well as the game’s reception among critics in international gaming media. The article argues that through its game mechanical decisions, the game uses failure to create arguments regarding the political ideologies it depicts. It uses these arguments to create a wider worldview, at the heart of which lies an ideology of failure

Up in Arms: Gun Imaginaries in Texas

This chapter explores the act of political imagining around guns by centering on the temporal imaginaries constructed about the Founding Fathers in gun debates in Texas. It questions how the groups on both sides invoke the Founding Fathers as both objects and subjects of political imaginations. On one hand, political activists have created imaginary historical versions of the Founding Fathers to place them in relation to their own political imaginations in the modern day, to depict their stance as a continuum of a wider arc of history. On the other hand, the debates have touched on the potential limits of the imaginations of the Founding Fathers themselves, sparking discussions and disagreements on what the historical figures could have imagined in their own times. The chapter uses a body of materials drawn from media, activists, and fieldwork interviews to explore these two points and to elucidate through them the larger dynamics of political conflict in the contemporary United States. It asks how the temporal imaginaries of the Founding Fathers constructed around guns are drawn into larger ideological tensions that govern modern politics. </p

Up in Arms: Gun Imaginaries in Texas

The concluding chapter wraps up the volume by pointing to the explanatory, social, and performative aspects of gun imaginaries, as understood through the various historical contexts and interpretive lenses that the contributors engage. The transdisciplinary American Studies explications of gun debates demonstrate the great significance invested in weapons culture in the United States, be it on societal, cultural, or academic levels. Guns as imaginaries galvanize individuals who are up in arms, while their actions and reactions reverberate into further imaginaries; thus, individuals and communities simultaneously shape and are shaped by the broader power relations that they are necessarily a part of. Ultimately, the exploration of Texas as a gun imaginary and guns as a Texan imagery provides a toolbox and a roadmap for future discussions of the significance of firearms in other geographic contexts beyond the United States.</p

Up in Arms: Gun Imaginaries in Texas

This introductory chapter lays out the themes and research design of Up in Arms: Gun Imaginaries in Texas. It explicates the ways in which imaginaries about guns have significant performative power and ramifications for individuals, communities, and the nation. Conceiving of imaginaries as gateways between the real world and ideological abstractions, it elaborates how they serve various important functions, driving legislative efforts, political agendas, community building, and social divisions. The chapter illustrates how the volume uses both historical and contemporary imaginaries as lenses through which to explore and better understand a range of cultural aspects intertwined with gun debates in the United States, and Texas in particular. As a nexus of gun debates, the Lone Star State has built its history, identity, and cultural mythology on stories that depict how gun culture was imagined into the very core of collective identity, built environment, and popular culture—with tangible, real-world consequences.</p

Up in Arms: Gun Imaginaries in Texas

Up in Arms provides an illustrative and timely window onto the ways in which guns shape people’s lives and social relations in Texas. With a long history of myth, lore, and imaginaries attached to gun carrying, the Lone Star State exemplifies how various groups of people at different historical moments make sense of gun culture in light of legislation, political agendas, and community building. Beyond gun rights, restrictions, or the actual functions of firearms, the book demonstrates how the gun question itself becomes loaded with symbolic firepower, making or breaking assumptions about identities, behavior, and belief systems. </p