newsobserver.com | His sister in danger, 4-year-old plays hero.
A few weeks ago this story caught my attention. It’s about a four-year-old boy named Stevie Long who foiled a robbery by dressing as a Power Ranger and scarring of the attackers in his home with a plastic sword. It got me thinking about some of the criticisms people have made about media. Jerry Mander, for one, who authored the Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television, had his anti-TV epiphany when he saw his children during a family outing in the woods role-playing characters from Star Trek. I did a lot of that too (I was Spock, of course). And so have humans for thousands of years. They may not have dressed up to pretend they were in the band Kiss or play Vulcans in an imaginary spaceship, but they wore masks, dressed as animals and performed rituals from the stories of their cultures and ancestors.
Now, I still think it is unwise to challenge people with guns, but there is nothing inherently bad about taking on a power animal or superhero for inspiration. These days a lot of kids (and adults too!) are creating avatars to live extended lives that match a more fantastic vision of who they are and could be. Are they playing virtual characters? Absolutely not! There is nothing unreal about playing out a fantasy in cyberspace. It’s just a different location; netspace is not a false reality, it’s a very real place. People who claim that role-playing is inauthentic should question when they are truly authentic in their own lives. We are always playing roles and performing. Don’t believe me? Check in with yourself the next time you have a meeting with a banker, professor, potential employer, a new landlord or your parents. Who are you playing then?
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