Throw them in the dungeon

The inventor of the game "Dungeons and Dragons", Gary Gygax, died this week in Wisconsin.

For those who don't know, Dungeons and Dragons was the first popular role-playing tabletop game, sort of an elaborate board game. Originating in the mid-seventies, these games were the ancestors of diverse entertainment. Ethan Gilsdorf writes in the Boston Globe:

But since the 1980s, so-called fantasy escapist pursuits have gone mainstream. Dungeons & Dragons inspired blockbuster fantasy movies and J.K. Rowling's "Harry Potter" series, and boosted interest in Renaissance fairs and Tolkien. Adults now play Xbox and PlayStation as much as kids. Massively multiplayer online role-playing games, or MMORPGs, like World of Warcraft and Second Life, have entranced tens of millions worldwide. Even Dungeons & Dragons has become an online game.

Then he goes on:

Yet few have paused to consider the nature of the fascination, or its effects. Exhausted by our troubles, America seems nostalgic for a lost age. Wouldn't the world be better if we were ruled by benevolent kings and had real encounters with magic? If alchemy and mystery, not politics or media, ruled the lands? If a boy wizard or hobbit thief could wield real power?

Gilsdorf need not be worried: we already are ruled by a king (albeit not benevolent) using alchemy and mystery. After vetoing Congress's law that would have restricted the CIA to the tactics in the Army field manual on interrogations, Bush once again claimed that the lack of terrorist attacks in the U.S. was "not a matter of chance." (See Bush's radio address at the White House web site.)