In the novel Snow Crash (by Neal Stephenson), one of the most seminal cyberpunk pieces of fiction ever written, the main character lives in a storage unit with a roommate and delivers pizza to earn money. He and his roomie are effectively economic refugees in an LA of future imagining, in which anyone with any money has walled themselves into a gated community. But Hiro, the main character, has no problem with his surroundings because he is a computer genius who spends all his spare time in a virtual world which he had at some point helped to design, and in which, therefore, he lives a totally unreal life of luxury and social standing.
This (second life) would be a case of life imitating art (imitating life!), the designers making a Snow-Crash-esque virtual world in which to forget the crushing meaninglessness and desperation of everyday existence.
I realize this is unusual fodder for a news blog but I do a lot of thinking about why it is that people are content with the status quo. I think that there are probably a lot of people who use prosthetics for their imaginations in order to escape a Hobbesian reality. The danger is that without any sort of perceived need to change everyday reality, citizens of any nation-state become pliant and gullible. Our critical thinking skills are not required, and therefore they atrophy. One thinks of our President's post-911 admonition to go shopping and to take the family to Disneyland. There is a particular type of backlash to the boredom of the middle classes as well, which I observe in the moneyed young men of my brother's generation- driving around in Eugene listening to hip hop and trying to pick fights and live large, simply because life will then have adrenaline and spark to it. Such posturing is generally unproductive in my opinion, but it seems to satisfy them, at least in the short run.
I bring this up because I feel that it is difficult for me to understand news like this, about the suicide bomber outside the Red Mosque in Islamabad. I have never in my life touched the edge of the level of desperation and hopelessness that would be necessary to give momentum to such a desire, let alone carry such a thing out. I simply lack the ability to understand such a thing. But from the outside, what I see is an act of horrible, soul-crushing disenfranchisement. It is the most final and horrible way in which one could possibly say "listen to me!" and yet the message, whatever it is, is lost along with all respect for any cause that could inspire such fanaticism. It is a totally opposite response to the perceived horrors of the modern real world, than that of the hyperenhanced daydreaming which is fostered by the creation of a perfect virtual world.
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I wonder if you could say that complacency is a form of self-disenfranchisement?
I must say that I have been "studying" my boyfriend's social actions and interactions in the World of Warcraft for almost a year now. I thought it would make a great sociological study - and now I see that they are indeed using it this way, per the article you reference. Neat!
I asked him not too long ago if his actions in WOW are similar to the way he would act in real life in a similar given economic/social situation (for example, he is very generous with his time and money in the game, always willing to help someone out, often with no gain for himself, except perhaps friendship and respect from that other player) and he affirmed that his actions are almost identical to his real world choices. He is always complaining about how selfish the other players are, and it is apparent that while my boyfriend values teamwork and charity, the majority of players do not.
I find it is an interesting way to glimpse my bf's values and ethics in a way that often is not possible in real life.
However, with my interest in world affairs and the "real world", it is hard for me to understand devoting so much time and effort to something that ultimately does not matter at all in the real world.
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