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John Pilger praises the War on Terror (board game)
The hawk-eyed among you will have noticed from our recent blog gallery that there's something different about the new* War on Terror boxes - namely a sticker on the front, proudly displaying a few choice quotes, including one from the legendary John Pilger:
"Through the fog of an often collusive and compliant media comes this extraordinary game, achieving, with its black humour, its own truth about the pernicious War on Terror" - John Pilger
It's really not a joke, as some have assumed, John Pilger genuinely likes our game. When we first sent him a copy we didn't really expect a reply, but the encouraging email he sent upon receiving War on Terror has been stuck up on the TBG office wall ever since. Many months later, we cheekily asked for a quote for the new print run of WoT. Again, Mr. Pilger humbled and surprised us by replying with his generous remarks.
Here are the other quotations we've used on the same sticker. We think they make a nice little selection:
- The tip of the sharp tongue of satire - BBC
- Legendary - Der Spiegel
- Spectacularly controversial - Forbes
- One of the most thought-provoking games we've seen in years - Playboy
- New satirical heights - The Nobel Peace Center
- Excellent - New International
- Somebody has gone too far - Andrew Lansley, MP
Personally, I was introduced to John Pilger by Andy T lending me The New Rulers of the World when I was in my mid twenties, still painfully emerging from that vestige of adolescence, the ego-cocoon. It was this book that utterly destroyed the notion that "we" were the good guys. The real picture was far worse than anything I could have imagined and guided by Pilger's outstanding sense of justice and unforgiving conscience, I was spurred on to read others: Noam Chomsky, Edward S. Herman, Howard Zinn, Edward Said, Norman Finkelstein ... In essence, reading John Pilger started a revelatory transition for me from internal and philosophical to external and political. I've admired him profoundly ever since.
If you're new to Pilger, if nothing else, please get your hands on one of his powerful and insightful documentaries. Many of these have never been shown on mainstream TV. Year Zero (about Cambodia, the covert escalation of the Vietnam war there and the West's secret co-operation with Pol Pot's murderous regime) and Death of a Nation (about the financial and military support given to Suharto's brutal dictatorship in Indonesia by the World Bank, UK, USA, Australia and others in the genocide of 200,000 East Timorese) are both great starting points. Don't expect to feel too great afterwards though.
There's not much left to say but, thanks, John, you've made our day!
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* Talking of new stock, we should be clear that this latest reprint is exactly the same as the other games, except for that sticker. Sadly the 2nd edition of WoT is still a way off and we don't really have a projected release date yet. We know we've tentatively given one in the past, but demand keeps overtaking us and finding the time to re-tool and reprint is always an issue. That said, there's nothing stopping you playing the current edition with some tried and tested, souped-up rules.
Posted by Andy S on 16 November 2009 - 0 comments