A young man who grew up experiencing years of violence in Burundi’s civil war is bewildered by the violent, war-like video games played by Americans when he encounters them in a prep school in Massachusetts:
“In the hallway at Deerfield, the boy, whom I’ll call Luke, went on talking about video games, as we waited for our classmates to join us for dinner. Almost everything Luke said was so confusing that I asked him: ‘What do you mean by saying you killed so-and-so?’
“‘Well, my enemies. Paci, how often do you play video games?’
“‘Actually, what are they?’
“The other students looked at each other and smiled.
“‘Come on, Paci!’ Luke led me to his room. He took up a little device in his hands and turned on his computer. He pointed at the computer screen, at images of people with guns. ‘Once you press this button, they start moving and you hunt them, see?’ Out of the computer’s speakers came the sound of shooting, the sound of war.”
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