Japanese Magic

I talked with some young men playing a game of Japanese magic, adopted for America.

What the elders give the children to play with says something.

I wasn't surprised to find the Japanese had their own version of magic. I think I offended the young men, because I asked for the history and dates of development of the game. Game development was an interest of mine since I found TSR in 1976. They dated the game of Magic to as early as 1993. I said I was sure I had seen it played at Wizards of the Coast. They played it all over the place, leaving cards at tables in the cafeteria.

They became very uninterested in any further conversation when I asked about the centurion's helmet. I was asking them too many questions they weren't sure they could answer.

Did the Japanese choose a centurion helmet for American children? Why? Why not the cowboy hat, or the old dog-face pot? A civil war cap? George Washington's whatever, wig.

Did Japan have some kind of alliance with Rome? Do the Japanese elite see America as an extension of the Roman Empire?

Why not a Samurai helmet?

Who wants American soldiers to think like centurions?

If the centurion's helmet was on the original Japanese version of the game, does it mean the Japanese want to become or think like centurions, not Samurai?

I didn't ask all those questions. I just focused on the game developers and their choices.

A key to what is going on in the real matrix.

The psychology and and symbology of game design, and it's effect on young minds. (That would be my thesis paper if I had enough money to pursue an education.)

Magic is a strategy game of symbols and numbers.

What is American Magic?

Stories, like the story of the bear and the squirrel. The bear loved and valued the antics of the squirrel, who was so nervous about things that the bear got alerts whether he needed them or not.

While settling down by the stream to eat his fish, the bear would enjoy the antics of the squirrel in the trees and on the forest floor.

The squirrel never had to worry about wolves or other predators.

Two nations can be like bear and squirrel, two cities, two neighbors, etc.

That's the use of stories, which are like games.

Who is the bear and who is the squirrel?

In Wisconsin, it is Milwaukee and la Crosse.

La Crosse is a very squirelly city.

Milwaukee is the bear, resting by the lake to enjoy it's fish.

The bear says: "Don't mess with my squirrel."

And leaves the squirrel to fend for itself.

If fire from the sky hits La Crosse, Milwaukee will be throwing fire into the sky. At something.

And so Milwaukee will hold the state of Wisconsin.

Some bureaucratic demon killed the family dairy industry in Wisconsin by passing a regulation to pay Wisconsin farmers the lowest price, and farmers in swamps in Florida, and in deserts in California the most for milk. It's horribly inefficient, and the cows in Florida and California won't survive any serious emergency like war or collapse. The Army must prepare plans to move the cattle to Wisconsin, where the land has laid fallow for almost a generation. The cows can stand the winters here and grow fat on the abundant growth in the Summer. We also won't have enough men to trim the forests, and we don't want them to burn down, so we will need goats and pigs from places where they aren't likely to survive. Ready the trains and heavy transport helicopters.

Does any nation dare to try to stop the buildup of Fort Milwaukee?

How could they? By nuking Milwaukee? It would take a lunatic more deranged than a Bond villain to destroy the resource potential of Wisconsin, and especially Milwaukee.
Some would regard it as a prize.

A diamond with a wolf in it.

The wolf will guard the diamond until the dragon is ready to pluck it up.

The city will hold one of the most precious regions in the world.

And turn water into beer.

That's American Magic!