You say that a friend you care about just found out that you are a wargamer, and lost all respect for you as a human being? You say that a member of another world culture just decided you are responsible for or insensitive to many centuries of man's inhumanity to man? You say that some bully just kicked sand in your face because you are a fifty year old man who plays with toy soldiers? Is that what's bothering you, Bunky? Then lift your head up high, and take a walk in the sun, because you need no longer cringe in the corner or get kicked out of the university because they called you mad! No, your hobby participation could well be a spiritual and artistic activity helping us make sense of the limited time we human beings have to spend here on Earth, and discover our possible evolutionary role upon it. As for the questioning outsider, take the time to lead them, yea, but one step closer to understanding in that short window of opportunity their question opens, and leave them thirsting for more, by implying the many other secerts of wisdom which awaits behind certain mysterious doors of historical knowledge, should they only wish to go through them. That is to say, "ya don't know it until you've experienced it." When a participant in one of my training workshop on Cultural Diversity Awareness discusses his background in the Sudan, and finds that I am able to name tribes from his homeland, he is happy that an American knows something about the history of his country. Those of us who have spent our time learning about history have a powerful tool to communicating with others. Why not use it? my challenge to myself is to be able to speak to anyone from anywhere a bit about their culture, and I'm learning about new ones all the time. Science says that people like us, Homo Sapiens sapiens, has been around for a long time, perhaps 400,000 years. But how much longer will we be around? Some workshop participants answer "two or three weeks." It all depends on whether we can learn to work together, especially in a setting like a hospital, where we must work in life or death situations with people from very different backgrounds. One year after 9/11, I no longer have to explain what an "external disaster" is when covering Disaster Planning during my week long New Employee Orientation Program. Science says that there is no such thing as "race." That is, that physical differences of type are not significant in any way. Further, It has been suggested that the reason White Europeans have dominated the globe in the recent era is more due to environmental factors than any inherent racial or cultural superiority in that group (1). Of course, the Europeans were unprepared for the end of the phase of history when they would so dominate the world (2). One science fiction author even envisioned a future when the rest of the world would put them on trial for their crimes (3). But the expansion of Europe was not done by all nations for the same reasons and in the same way at any rate (4). And the history of any non-European state shows that we've all been opressing each other quite ruthlessly before the age of European domination (5, 6). That's not to deny the scars left by European colonial oppression. Here in what would become the United States, the clashing of alien cultures was to leave its mark on all involved (7,8). In order to be a good ambassador for the hobby, or at least for your own sanity, you have to meet the questioner on the level where they start. This may be a higher level than we hobbyists usually inhabit while painting, researching, writing, or gaming. But clearly this leaves us unprepared to discuss wargaming to a non-gamer. What a shame. I personally welcome discussions about wargaming with others. To be interested in history is to be interested in everything! At the recent JodieCon Borodino02 convention last September down in Hampton, Virginia, I found myself suddenly being asked very general unscripted questions by a film crew about the hobby. Rather than guiding a carefully prepared project, the crew just appeared to be spontaneously covering the event, expecting that the experience would manifest somehow in front of their eyes and lenses. But parts of our hobby occur only in our minds, and these will not be visible unless we make them so. Totally unprepared for this sudden spotlight, I asked myself how I could tell an audience of nongamers what we were up to, and why, in only a few small sound bits. Luckily, I'd thought about this before. Well, we'll see how well I did (or not) next April on PBS, or so they tell me. Here are some thoughts and guidelines I use when discussing wargaming with nongamers: 1. Why study war? Doctors can't diagnose diseases by only studying healthy people. 2. The trauma of violence in the Twentieth Century will be a long time healing. We're working on it . As a person of Jewish descent, part of my job is to remember what happened. Playing it out is a way of remebering in a very sacred sense. 3. A wargame is not just a game on the level I play it. It is "experiential theatre" with role playing and problem solving elements. You can learn more history in a four hour game than in a whole course of study! 4. Improvisational historical theatre requires a suspension of modern sensibilities. I take on the role of my side/nationality/faction as an actor, and play it out. Then afterwards comes the analysis and feelings that may lead to further research into the period or culture involved. If I am running the game, I am directing my own movie. And who doesn't want to have the chance to do that? 5. An individual gains strength of character from going through such an experience, whatever the subject. It stands one well when confronting real life problems. "If you can keep your head while all others around you are losing theirs (and blaming it on you), you'll be a man, my son." (9). 6. If a person knows me, he knows anything I'm involved in must have something to it. How can I explain what that is? 7. If a person doesn't know me, or is too hostile to listen--hey, that's their trip, man. 8. If the person doesn't know history, they are more likely to say something like "I hate George Washington becauae he ordered the massacre of the Indians." A balenced historical perspective is not to be expected from many--including many garners. But how refreshing it is, to discuss things with someone who does. 9. I often come out of a game with more respect for the bravery of the society I knew less about originally, which is often a non-European one. Such leads to further bridge building efforts with members of that background if I meet them, and more reading on my own part. 10. If you think it is more worthwhile to spend your time in another way, you are always free to do so. But to make me change, you'll have to convince me that yours is better. That is, more creative, full of comradeship, crafty, colorful, educational, meditative, etc. "If you've got a better 'ole, 'op to it!" (10). The fact that several people have brought up the subject of how wargaming looks to outsiders argues well for their own sensitivity to others. And I'd certainly rather not be viewed as a bloodthirsty maniac pretending to be Napoleon (or Kutuzov) on my day off! However, I have found most people are more interested than not. We are curious creatures, and differences, even in hobby, should be acknowledged pleasantly. (11). We are all, as mere mortals, walking on an edge, trying to ensure that life for us has more good in it than bad. I have seen much good, and very little bad, come out of the hobby. Of course some games are more special than others. "And by their fruits you shall know them." (12). NOTES 1. Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond (Norton, 1999). 2. The Illusion of Permanence: British Imperialism In India by Francis G. Hutchins (Princeton, 1967). 3. The Marriage Between Zones Three, Four, and Five by Doris Lessing. 4. The Colonial Empires From the Eighteenth Century by D.K. Fieldhouse (Delta, 1965). 5. The Rise and Fall of the Zulu Nation by John Laband (Arms and Armour, 1997). 6. A History of China by Wolfram Eberhard 4th Ed (Univ. California, 1977). 7. Indians and English: Facing Off in Early America by Karen Ordahl Kupperman(Corrfell, 2000) 8. Pocahontas: The Life and the Leciend by Frances Mossiker (Da Capo 1996). 9. "If," a poem by Rudyard Kipling 10. Caption of British World War One cartoon, showing s talk between two Tommies as the shells and bullets fly about outside their foxhole. I once saw it on the floor of a restaurant called The Better 'Ole.' 11. "Infinite Diversity In Infinite Creation" (IDIIC) is the Star Trek philosophy on planet Vulcan. 12. The Holy Bible. Elsden: B.A. European History, Beloit College M.A. European History, S.U.N.Y. Stony Brook Recipient, 2002 Corporate Multi-Cultural Award New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation Back to MWAN # 121 Table of Contents Back to MWAN List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 2003 Hal Thinglum This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com