A Hard-Left History Geek Plays Minecraft
This will be my occasional blog, whenever I feel like putting something up, about playing Minecraft in single player survival mode on a vanilla 1.14 Java instance. It’s also about colonialism, which is built into the foundational assertions of the game, and about imperialism, social conflict, and territorial imperatives in a virtual world where only one character actually has free will and volition, and the rest are basically animated wallpaper. Oh, and that one character owns the entire means of production. The villagers with jobs and the merchant are just vending machines. So yeah, I’m going to ramble about leftist politics and Minecraft, and talk about how the one gets me thinking about the other.
This blog has been archived, partially because I completed the cycle I was working on, partly because the work stopped getting reaction, and partly because I'm hypomanic bipolar and had a nasty downcycle, one of those where my own brain hates me and that voice that's Authority in all its shapes and dismal aspects (I still have my father yelling racist slurs in the back of my head, can't seem to be rid of the bastard) beats my self-confidence until it stops reacting at all and just lays there semi conscious and trying to breathe. Please use the Contact links at the bottom of the page, and let me know if you lovd it / hated it / want to buy me a drink / feed me to the crows. Feedback is the fuel that keeps me banging away at the keyboard.
In which we join our scheduled programming, already in progress. The blog starts, as one might expect, at the central stronghold, and the central conceit: that a leftist can find ethical entertainment, or at least challenges to their thinking, while playing Minecraft, and not take all the fun out of the game by taking it too seriously.
In which I talk about the humble torch, a real workhorse for a cheap price, and that's whether you're pricing in labor and materials, which is the true cost in Minecraft, or trying to assign some kind of monetary value based on the in-game vending machine token, the emerald.
In which we visit the first waystation I built, and I bring up a couple of points for later development, as well as revisiting the colonial/imperial mechanic of the game. This is also the Castle anchor of the Western Railway, so this gets our journey started.
In which we establish some infrastructure and talk about how the railway got built.
In which we visit one of the early western waystations, and talk about its conversion to a railway station, and I hold forth on the subject of stripmining.
In which we visit what was at its creation the westernmost station of the Empire, the frontier. Now it's a switching point between the Western, Grand Concourse, and Great Southern Railways, sitting atop a region riddled with played-out mineworks. Welcome to Trenton.
In which we tour probably the oddest of my railway stations, with peculiar geologic features in the area that gave the place its name, and set the trippy standard for it. This sort of explains the interior but not really.
In which I explain that the Frank Lloyd Wright reference is to the waterfall, not the architecture, but you'll figure that out quick enough. And the dog does not show up in any of the photos.
In which I get a little deeper into the imperialism and colonialism of Minecraft, and struggle to decide whether I am mocking the concept of empire or valorizing it by declaring myself an Empire of One and putting up banners to mark my territory.
In which I look at a rather ordinary station that serves a special purpose: anchoring the point where the Great Southern turns south and earns its name, rolling on another 3100 blocks from this station all the way down to Ballantrae, where it turns west once more to reach the goal: The Woodland Mansion.
In which I outrun my supply lines, and retrofit an underground station with a topside garden. Also landing lights because landing lights are cool.
In which I throw together a bog-standard navvy camp and muse briefly on capitalism not being in the habit of providing nicely appointed spaces to the labour pool.
In which I make an oblique reference to being a bit Dagenham.
In which I ruminate a bit about the distance travelled for Imperial conquest.
In which the Great Southern Railway arc comes to an end, and I ramble on at considerable length about imperialism and colonialism, ethical issues I have with the game, rewards reinforcing behavior, and generally hold forth.
