Saturday, January 31, 2009

THE "PHILOSOPHICAL"--MIRRORED IN THE GAME OF AIRSOFT

The "philosophical" enhances human meaningfulness in a world where meanings are invented/re-invented, created/re-created, and shaped/re-shaped by the human being himself who doesn't allow the Nothing to end up to nothing but finds in the Nothing an exciting challenge in the manner that a creative artist is challenged by the blank canvas on an easel. In this sense, human meaningfulness is something that authentically depends on human creativity. It shouldn't be misconstrued as something bestowed in a silver platter by a supernatural power. The reality is there is no such power. The power that humanity possesses emanates from her/him alone and this reality makes one's humanity exciting. In this excitement resides one's desire to improve and develop his/her talents and make good use of them to make the world a better place to live in.

This conception of the "philosophical" is reflected in the game of airsoft for the game's excitement is a re-creation of human meaningfulness. The game enhances such meaningfulness to the point of desiring to improve one's skills in playing the game: strategy-planning, tactical maneuvering, terrain-exploration, opportunity-discovery, teamwork-building, trial-and-error experimentation and behavior-observation. So that, in the game of airsoft, nobody relies on suerte. It's all skills through and through.

Yet, though there's a simulation of death in the game by way of being hit, such a situation still spells human meaningfulness even at the point of death for an event like that instantly becomes a lesson for you and for the others in the game. Besides, the event of being hit is also an expression of one's courage to do an honest act: Being able to shout "Hit!" after having been actually hit is a test of one's honesty which is a rare thing nowadays. In other words, since there are very few honest people in the present dispensation when so many call themselves God-believing, born-again Christians, honest people is a rarity. But what is amazing is you find many of them in airsoft games. Though it's not always the case for there are still legions of airsofters who are makukunat na zombies.

What makes the game of airsoft more meaningful and more into the enhancement of human meaningfulness than that which we find and experience in the actual Lebenswelt is, in the former, there is a very serious/sincere effort/endeavor to promote, institutionalize and defend HONESTY while in the latter, dishonesty/palusot/panggugulang/pandurugas is standardized. There is therefore an upholding of the "philosophical" mirrored in the game of airsoft; very much diametrically opposed to the actualities we find in this very "unphilosophical" world controlled and run most of the time by agents of irrationality, insanity, stupidity and barbaric inutility.