New World Notes

RIDING OUT THE DEBATE

Originally published September 18, 2003 here.

Even in the Mature-rated, almost-anything-goes simulators of Second Life, you're not allowed to engage in behavior that would be illegal in real life. (A handy catch-all clause, in the Linden Lab Terms of Service agreement.) Oneironaut Escher kept this caveat in mind, when he built an educational installation in Stanford, dedicated to promoting awareness of sinsemilla, if or when it's decriminalized.

The centerpiece is a monster pipe, which you can ride like a roller coaster, in a hollow sphere which rolls you down the long, curlicue glass pipe, and plops you into the nearby water, where you usually keep rolling all the way to the bottom of the ocean floor.

Escher has some strong opinions about what he sees as contradictory laws in this country, and he’s put his personal position in that political discourse into 3D form. "It's something I'm passionate about," says Escher, "and SL gives me a little more anonymity than real life, so I feel a bit safer about being voiceful for the movement. It's ridiculous that something safer than aspirin and with great potential benefits is illegal in so much of the world."

A giant sign in the center of Escher's fairgrounds explicitly disavows any endorsement of illegally ingesting the weed with roots to hell, and warns residents to check their local laws, before applying anything they learn in here, out there.

I ask Oneironaut if he's a real-world activist.

"Not really active in real life," he says, smiling, "the Man keeps me down." But he's hopeful that changes will soon be coming to his neighborhood. "I'm on the East Coast. Canada is about to legalize -- that will cause intense pressure on the US to change its laws."

"SL is quite appropriate," he says, "for... 'creative' states of mind. It's both beneficial and helpful [to me]. Adds to creativity, but being easily distracted can make scripting difficult.”

TAX REVOLT IN AMERICANA!

Originally published August 12, 26, and September 12 of 2003 here, here, and here.

In late July, a cadre of outraged Lifers began agitating against the Linden tax system, which they see as unjustly penalizing ambitious builders, who contribute so much value to the world. By August 2nd, their cause had broken out into open protest. The first blow was leveled on Americana, the user-driven project to recreate famous US icons in a city space. Dissent appropriately took a very American form: the project's Washington monument had been replaced by a giant tower of tea crates; the baseball stadium rendered unusable by similar stacks; the Route 66 gas station set ablaze by an insurrectionist midget shooting off seditious fireworks. Crates and signs were festooned everywhere -- there, and throughout the world. Contacted by New World Notes, Fleabite Beach -- the iconoclastic kitty who leads this revolt -- here pleads their case to the general public:

WHAT IS YOUR GROUP CALLED, OF WHO IS IT COMPOSED, AND WHAT IS ITS PURPOSE?

We are PATRIOTS to the man, woman and cat, as are all loyal subjects to the King who watch from afar as common sense and conscience are compromised, until liberty wells up in their hearts and they are forced to action. King Linden's laws have no power to make a man more just; and commonly, by means of their respect for it, even the well-intentioned are daily made the agents of injustice. Our purpose here today, as should be daily and everywhere, is one of a well-reasoned Justice and nothing more.

WHAT ARE THE PARTICULAR CAUSES OF YOUR GRIEVANCES?

The subjects of King George Linden serve the King, not as subjects and taxpayers and pay-to-players merely, but as machines, with their bodies. They are the Builders, the Scripters, the Texture Makers, the Events Coordinators, the Tour Givers, The Mentors, the Resident Instructors, etc. In most cases they are treated akin to horses or dogs, expected to serve and to work, not by conscience, but by din of a much heralded way and an unreasoned loyalty to a Mad King. A wise man will only be useful as a man and will not be submitted to the realm of beasts of burden.

WHAT DEMANDS DO YOU MAKE OF "MAD KING GEORGE LINDEN"?

The thoughtful consideration and realization of a means by which all Loyal Subjects can work toward the greater goods of community, god and country without the abdication of their moral relevance. We cast our voices upwards, as we think is right, but we should not be vitally concerned that right should come of it, only that our voices are heard and respected. Without true Representation there is nothing in SL but pixels that labor to arrange other pixels for the glory and prosperity of Kings.

WHAT ACTIONS DO YOU THREATEN, IF THE KING MEETS NOT YOUR DEMANDS?

Regarding future consideration by the Callous and Cavalier King George, we expect that our demands will fall on deaf or uncaring ear. Should this be the case, we shall make of ourselves soldiers of the heart, embracing Liberty and Justice for all; and rejecting law and dictate made in haste to the detriment of just and free-thinking men, women and cats everywhere. To the Mad Mad King George we shall say, "You and your kind will rue the day. To you, sirs, Tea Crates in the Bay."

IF YOUR DEMANDS ARE STILL NOT MET, WHAT SHALL YOUR NEXT RECOURSE BE?

There is naught to be done but act upon the heart. What man is given a conscience specifically to abdicate to Kings? Why have a conscience at all I say? When the time comes to stay the heart, none shall stop beating. When the time comes to lay down honor, none shall lay before the King's carriage, to be crushed beneath the hooves of those unable to do more. When the time comes, there is in the minds of all good men, only action.

-- and so the die is cast. But even now, a Linden loyalist movement has sprung up in opposition to the revolutionaries. Who shall ultimately prevail?