Halo in the Post 9/11 World

Hey guys I am going to put some ideas down here. Over the weekend I wrote up a gender analysis of the much loved and played Halo 3. I know that all of you have at least watched Halo and have had enough exposure of to the franchise to credit its influence on its fans. I had a professor last semester that told the class after one of his rants that every single thing has a meaning and by looking for it you can better understand the world. So lets look at the Post 9/11 world in terms of what Halo 3 can tell us about it. The basis of the Halo storyline is this, an alien alliace called the covenant have been told by their prophets that human beings are devils. This becomes their religious view and they hold a religous crusade to exterminate them throughout the universe. While they work to do this Master Chief (your character) fights against them tooth and nail to save the humankind. Both the humans and the Covenant find the Halos througout the universe and find that they can be used to destroy the universe. The Prophets then become fanatics and attempt to use them to wipe out everyone in the universe. That is the story in a nutshell.So what does that say to us? We are living in the post 9/11 world where America is spreading its influence through military war in middle east. Since the fall of the twin towers America has become intertwined in a war against what many call the rugheads and others muslem. The Covenant are a religious group, much like what we think the Arabs are (they aren't and have many different religious views), and many believe they are warring against us in the name of their religion(nope just freedom). Like the covenant there is the belief in America that middle easterers want to destroy our way of life because it threatens their ways of thinking and living. Both the Covenant and Arabs (both Afghan and Iraqi) are fighting America. In Halo it is only America that defends the planet from religious zealots. See a connection here? Also in Halo there is the false leading of leaders. The prophets lie to their subjects and lead them to try to exterminate themselves. In this world both Saddam and Bush have falsely led their nations in order to achieve a political end. The connections of this videogame and the world we live in continue on and on but to save the post size I will move on to what it means.Unlike all of these simularities on the outside Halo in fact tells a much different and important story of the world. In the second game the Elites, a groups of aliens in the convenant, are kicked out of the group and become allies for the humans. They become an integral part of the defense on earth and is accepted by the humans. This easy acceptance of a group that is different is something that we as Americans could learn from. To accept those that are different, from a whole other world, is something that Americans need to understand if they wish to trually be part of this world. Middle easterers are just like us but in a different culture. Most are no more religious than we are in America, but the popular image of them as fanatics has poisoned our view of them here. Master Cheif accepts the elites much like we should those in the Middle east because despite some differences we are all humans. In Halo humans are humans, even though America is presented as its savior(familiar huh?) there is no speak of saving America. Instead they fight for everyone not just those of the Anglo-Saxon skin and mindframe. They are just as important as us in our rich nation. Halo also tells us we need to accept and realize that bad leaders can influence their people for the worse and that the people of a nation cannot be defined by who claims to lead them. Many of us would not say they were the same as our currtent president. The covenant wouldn't have followed the Prophets of they knew what they actually wanted. Most Iraqis are not like Saddam and Bin Laden isn't a common Afghan!!! So Listen to Halo when it tells us that we are all humans and need to be accepting of others. Nextime you here someone say towelhead or stupid Iraqis take a minute to think that they are like us and deserve the same respect that we would want from any human.

Forgive my Typos it is late ;p
Josh