Cultural Lag

An interesting read.

http://lawandpolitics.blogspot.com/


SL is changing at a very rapid pace and it might be that we residents are struggling with culture lag (in addition to the usual lag).

That's an interesting thought... Throughout the latter part of the 1900s more and more people have been left behind by the overwhelming changes going on in society and technology... Latley i've seen more and more clinging to old familiar icons of reality in SL.

The more I think about it, the more I feel strongly that there have probably been just too many "cultural" changes to SL in too short a time for people to absorb. This creates inevitable backlash.

Praise be to Primatar!

I didn't really find anything much of interest or new in that article, to be honest.

I will say that I think there is a real clash of civilizations in SL and I see class, national, ethnic, fault lines everywhere. People think that because I describe these, I incite them.

But to take just one very "tiny" cultural issue, one in which European/Asian/North American/South American/African cultures and norms have very different ideas about.

The issue of second-hand resale. Some people really bristle at this and see it as removing value from the creator, ripping off the creator, harming the artisan's pride of place in society, etc. Others see trying to stop second-hand resale it as an unncessary block on the economy, unjustifiable privileging of an artisan elite, a normal function in a free society, etc. It's amazing to see all the cultural ideas trotted out in defense or detraction of this idea, without any awareness that the values are created by certain cultural and national norms instilled since childhood about commerce, goods, marketplaces, etc.

I think one of the worst things the world has to deal with now is a lot of semi-educated but technically proficient people let loose on big open spaces like the Internet. Their minds are actually terribly uninformed, unschooled in the Socratic Method, un-curious, yet they have technological capability and a shrill, unyielding illiberal ideology all their own, whether some new version of communism or fascism.

The worst is when people from different backgrounds and nationalities, who are merely the outer-edged flaky cranks of their own society, come together and they've got the goddamn League of Nations when all they are is the League of Cranks.

Many people think they have all kinds of harmonious cross-cultural internationalist experiences but that's because they haven't seen the jihad or McWorld lurking under the surface once they get over their breathless hands-across-the-sea stuff.

I see all kinds of pernicious sects and backward ways of life populating up this space. I see violence, coercion, enslavement, warfare, fuck-you hedonism, intolerance, and hatred set as the centerpieces of all kinds of sectarian "communities" in SL and in other morpegs.

Nobody ever really studies the overall impact of all these really backward, anti-Enlightenment ways of life and "lifestyles" on the over all climate for freedom for all on the grid.

To me, the fact that so many troubled souls are reaching for these very restrictive and backward ideologies is symptomatic of the "culture shock" they are experiencing of their world changing so fast.

Example (upon which I know the majority agree, so discount the screaming flames you'll see following this post): You would never be getting so many women who were supposed to be the product of the work of their feminist grandmothers and mothers, agreeing to log-in voluntarily (let's suppose it as such) and become something talking about themselves in the third person, subject to the whim of a Master, and celebrating something called a "wifebeater" in the shopping section *unless* you had some culture shock going on. And what's more profound about the culture shock, is that you'll have 20,000 people who by and large think it's ok to give all that stuff a pass due to the need for basic tolerance of all lifestyles. I tend to agree. That's why I am forced to give it a pass in the name of our liberal world, even as I see it spread illiberalism and take away many of the achievements hard-won in the last 100 years. You see, it's always liberals like me who open up the gates to the barbarians.

I'm sure that when we get more RL journalists and anthropologists studying this kind of stuff with more academic rigour than we've seen with in-world types doing this, given that they will bring to bear some more RL credentials and values from the larger public, instead of just howling debates and flamewars on this subject, we're going to see some really thoughtful work on what it means to aid and abet the Internetization of our lives.

It's all going to be a lot of laughs until somebody on the adult grid uses their Nexcom phone to dial a teen and make them their "pet". (Notice that Phil indicated to the Nexcom fluffers that such calls would be discouraged and possibly "not allowed".

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Because there isn't any? And if you are educated, go through and methodically prove your claim.

Honestly, Forseti, I'm not here just to provide you with a good read and a chance to lob off your slam du jour. Step up to the plate and prove me wrong, please.

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HAR HAR HAR AARGH THEY'LL BE THE GOOD OLD DAYS POST BETA DAYS

Go ahead, Forseti, give me your best shot, see if you can put a sentence together.

Prok, I would suggest that technology and communications currently are only shedding light on things that have already existed as you know. Im not sure if there has been a study to see how technology affected the growth or interest in radical groups, cults or even mundane sects. Sure technology and more specifically the internet has allowed people to explore some of these things from the safety of their home. And yes it has also led to unfortunate incidents. But you must take the good with the bad and once you start wanting to restrict access to information that you personally do not approve of, its only then do you find the true barbarian. Disclaimer: Yes there are things that 99.9% of us agree shouldnt be available but Im discussing things that are legal for the most part.