To the Emmanuel Goldstein of SL

I'm sure this message will be followed up by 2 minutes of hate, but I just wanted to do a quick rebel shout out from the BrotherHood to our leader, Emmanuel Goldstein.

Ingsoc and their thought police have tried to make you vanish (indeed, this missive will no doubt be censored), however we're still here and we're still strong!

Remember comrades, look to the proles!

(1) Wasn't Goldstein and the Brotherhood a political construction - a virtual scapegoat that didn't really exist - designed to ensure support of and devotion toward BB? An invention of the State to manipulate the fears and hopes of the proles. Later in the novel, Winston and Julia learn this.

(2) Goldstein was physically and intellectually modeled directly on Leon Trotsky, the brilliant ideologue of the Bolshevik Revolution, who was assassinated by the NKVD in Mexico City. So you're comparing the "Dearly Departed" to Leon Trotsky? I'm sure when he hears that, whatever he's drinking will come flying out of his nose.

(3) It's a good jape, even so, blaze. I appreciate the literary pretentiousness.

(1) Wasn't Goldstein and the Brotherhood a political construction - a virtual scapegoat that didn't really exist - designed to ensure support of and devotion toward BB? An invention of the State to manipulate the fears and hopes of the proles. Later in the novel, Winston and Julia learn this.

On second thought, an interesting idea: that the "Dearly Departed" is a construct of LL and the FIC to create a backlash against rising opposition, and enforce the will of the Few on the timid minds of the Many. So the "Dearly Departed" was actually on Their side....

(2) Goldstein was physically and intellectually modeled directly on Leon Trotsky, the brilliant ideologue of the Bolshevik Revolution, who was assassinated by the NKVD in Mexico City. So you're comparing the "Dearly Departed" to Leon Trotsky? I'm sure when he hears that, whatever he's drinking will come flying out of his nose.

(3) It's a good jape, even so, blaze. I appreciate the literary reference.

Blaze, I'm giving you a big hug, I hope you can feel it. It's not one of those fake ones but with a firm squeezing of my arms around you and my head against your shoulder. Feel free to rest your head on top of mine. Of course I'm assuming you're taller than me.

I hope that feels better.

Yeah, I'm not sure how much mileage I'm going to get out of this.

What a reference! You get the Ulrika Zugzwang Medal of Displayed Forum Prowess for the week. (It's a statue of a person reloading their own post over and over smiling as they experience their genius anew each time.)

~Ulrika~

Well considering the person it's aimed at can't read it I guess that all depends on what kind of mileage you were actually after.

Oh I'm sure he's got his spies.

Actually, there are some paralells. The dearly departed (as you have called him
) definitely had a deep love for the proletariat.

And yes, I have felt at times that the FIC (or the Ingsoc) spent a lot of time opposing the one-who-must-not-be-named in order to shore up and bring together their community.

Those various threads which were really two minutes of hate and were orgies of power building. If you didn't scream insults at the screen along with the rest you were quickly outed as a conspirator against Big Brother.

All this was done unconsciously of course.

I'll say one thing: "dearly departed" or "the one who must not be named" or whatever other moniker surfaces ("the man with no name"?) - there's some political mileage to be had about the need to rename "the banished one".

-War is peace

-Freedom is slavery

-Ignorance is strength

“If there is hope... it lies in the proles”

I think that many of the people you define as FIC view themselves as Proles.

*shrug*

Nolan, I've never defined anyone as FIC. They keep defining themselves.

The truth is, everyone in SL can be a bit FICCish. Even me, and yes, definitely the unamed one as well (remember that time he tried to buy his way into Boardman? How FIC was that!)

The point about the anti-fic was never to target people. People just merely assumed they were being targeted. The point was to say that we all need to ignore the elitist in ourselves.

How does it go? Glorify the past and the future dries up...

Blaze targeting Maxx & "friends":


There are other examples, granted most of them are Prokofy accusing individuals of being FIC, but I recall reading others from you as well too.

This little game in which you think you can evade responsibilty for helping to foster an "us v. them" atmosphere is old and highly transparent. After all, you've even admitted it was a game before, most notably in the thread where you admitted to luring people to get them define themselves as FIC.

Moved to Notices and Well Wishes, please be sure to place forum threads in the appropriate forum.

Heh well, I didn't exactly say Max was FIC, rather merely that he had friends that were FIC.

Anyways, you gotta let it go man. Let's all try to have some fun here.

That's not going to wash with me.


Eh, I am ALL FOR fun, and I am not the one starting threads with Orwellian jargon referencing things like Ingsoc, and associating it with recent events here on the Forums.

It certainly appears as though I am not the only one who needs to "let it go man".

You know, blaze, this kind of post makes me chuckle. A lot.

First, The Man with No Name either had a deep love for the proles, or he used them as a demagogue would use his public pawns. Maybe that was his definition of love, who can know? Either way, what you say may be true, but there's more truth there than you allude to.

Second, of course certain social networks of SL'ers subconsciously used He Who is No Longer with Us to "shore up" their own loyalties and common causes. Fortunately in some cases, and unfortunately in others, that's how human hierarchies work. Second nature.

Third, yes, it got to a point where people weighed in against The Erased One for social purposes relating to group-belonging, or for the sheer, abusive fun of hitting the big fish in the bucket. But what did I-Have-No-Mouth-Now-but-I-Must-Scream (sorry, Harlan) expect? He set out to bring out the worst in people, and he suceeded. So there's more truth there than you allude to, as well.

Fourth, a far better argument is whether the Eliminated Entity could've brought his issues forward and made headway without all the purple rhetoric and obsessive references. Or would a seriously-minded, stable Pro-K simply have sunk without a splash? That's what troubles me.

Fifth, and unrelated - I think Jeska's banishing this thread to Notices and Well Wishes shows a sense of censorship humor.

What I find constantly amusing (and also deeply troubling) are people who are so in love with their own ideas and so thin skinned about having their positions opposed that they imagine everyone who disagrees with them must be a member of some kind of organized old-boy network conspiring to do them in. It's either the height of conceit or paranoia. Perhaps both. Either way, it's laughable.

What about me, am I FICCish? Enquiring minds want to know.