Last week a large blue cat fluent in Mandarin stopped by my office, to tell me an insight she just had.
"Apparently," Patchouli Woollahra announced, "Second Life meets all six criteria imposed on the creation and continued existence of large groups, as theorized by a psychoanalyst named V.D Volkan."
This is not the sort of observation a cat is prone to make. (Nor for that matter, a busty Kawaii babe, among the many avatars in Patchouli's brimming wardrobe of identity.) But this particular feline happened to be writing her graduate on socialization on virtual worlds.
So I bid her to recite the list. And the blue cat did so from memory:
"One," she begins, "The group must have something to externalize their ideals
on. A lot of people are drawn by three aspects of the world in that
sense: The ability to earn/build/experiment with themselves.
"Number Two: An ability
to 'other' certain people—this is a common requirement in the formation of many
groups—the ability to find people who are 'not us'.
"Number Three," Patchouli continues, "is the ability for members of the group to find others who can be considered 'not them', and not part of the group, and made open to forms of discrimination. We've seen some aspects of this aimed at other virtual worlds that are 'Not SL', and occasionally at Linden Lab during earlier mega-outages of the grid, though there's a growing maturity that precludes this in some quarters.
"Number Four is knowledge generated or passed on about origins or good times. We've had weddings. We've had chances to view cool stuff. Some of us actively seek out knowledge about the times SL came out of— I know I do.
"Number Five is roughly the same as number four, albeit about
negative events. We've been around that we've lost a few things in the process,
or suffered forms of damage that have been felt in significant portions of the
grid. Deaths of loved residents such as Jesse Malthus, for example.
"Finally," says the cat, winding down, "a symbol of some sort unique to the group and
representing the group’s identity to members of the group and to others." And here, of course, she cites the eye-in-hand symbol of SL. "I think that one's started fraying a bit in recent months," she notes. "Different smaller groups are starting to find things and thoughts that others may not share even more than they used to.
But generally, when you see people protest stuff like Daniel and Robin Linden's recent posts as 'infringements on Residents' rights' it pretty much brings out that there ARE some things that are still shared... just not as much as before.
And with that, the cat had said her peace.
It's "piece" you dork, not "peace".
Posted by: Sansarya | Tuesday, June 19, 2007 at 08:04 AM
I would further note that on the 3rd point, there's been a fairly steady, occasionally resurfacing move to distinguish between basic and premium accounts and the rights accorded to each. I'm not familiar w/ Volkan, but sounds like an interesting treatise on psychosocial dynamics. May have to look him up. Go forth and conquer on the thesis; sounds like a fascinating topic to explore! And please give us updates on how it turns out.
Posted by: Arcadian Vanalten | Tuesday, June 19, 2007 at 11:49 AM