01-19-2004 08:52
The Ballad of Grimmy Moonflower

The Police Blotter generally likes to speak in broad terms – avoiding actually names and details in favor of generalities that serve as simple homilies. The stories might lack a sense of verte, but everyone learns a lesson and goes home happy. It’s like an After School Special, but without all the schmaltz.

So why would the Blotter use the name Grimmy Moonflower? It might as well be EZ Money, Simpson LeFey, Jerry Sunchaser, or the name of any other Resident who comes to Second Life and sees only, in all the potential the world of Second Life presents, a way to gratify his own base instincts at the expense of others. The names are interchangeable, and ultimately forgettable.

Classical sociological theory suggests that these people lash out and attack because, in reality, they are desperate to belong. The veneer of ridicule, the insistence on being too cool to participate, is a defense mechanism employed by those who fear rejection if they try to take part. Is this, then, the moment when everyone realizes that they, too, bear a responsibility for poor behavior of others? Then we all hug and understand that our differences make us stronger? Like an After School Special? Not this time.

The belief that anyone who spends time in Second Life, and witnesses the broad nature of the community, will eventually find their place is certainly a related theory – and it’s this idea that compels the Blotter to believe in second chances. More than once the Blotter has seen incorrigible griefers mend their ways. In more than one case, someone who racked up a rap sheet during their early days has become a cornerstone of the community. It required second chances…sometimes third and fourth…but it was worth the effort. The Blotter won’t name names…you know who you are.

Time for that After School Special moment, right? Not yet. The interchangeably named troublemakers --the type that's been the focus of so much discussion this week, upset the simple equation of second chances. In most of these cases, the Resident in question has displayed a certain amount of charm -- even charisma. Their antics, while coarse and obvious, are amusing. But then something less pleasant appears -- a KKK reference, a minstrel act, a Nazi avatar – and suddenly they're not so amusing anymore, and the second chance they were given ends up as egg on the Police Blotter’s face.

In the end, these episodes shake the Blotter’s faith in his fellow man, but they will not erode his belief in the principles that guide Second Life. There will still be second chances in Second Life, and the inclusiveness of the Second Life community will reach many of those who had arrived expecting only to cause trouble. As for the others…we’ll forget their names. Time for a hug?