Kit's Blog

Online is Darwin

     Some of you may have noticed the comment on the song the I linked to for Mr. Rogers about how the beat licked balls. I think it's fuckin' hilarious that these people who act like I'm such a nerd have so much free time as to still read my blog entries and comment. In fact, that plays directly into our next theme which is social Darwinism on the internet...
     Have you ever really thought about it? Sure, we all know that who we are on the internet is different than who we are in real life, but do we really know why? Well, here's my humble opinion, subject to your approval:
     When on the internet there are no real defining universal rules, no codes of conduct no reason to be civil. And then comes the non-confrontational issue. When you ignore rules of common conduct and choose to express yourself in a rude way, you know that you can just leave and/or walk away. You don't have to worry about infuriating a person to such a point where they hunt you down and make your life a living hell because what little information they may be able to find about you on the internet will more than likely not be able to lead them to much more than what they already knew about you. The second reason is survival. Very similar to Darwin's "survival of the fittest" theroy, the internet if filled with predators, prey, neutral, and people who do all three. The opportunist is normally the final option. Very defensive unless they see a weakness in another. Like hunting don the weak and the sick members of the herd rather than going for the strong, they protect themselves and yet still get the grim satisfaction of feeling like an "alpha-male."
     Then there are the ones who are already in power. The ones who own the forums (servers, games, whatever), or moderate because they are close to those in power. It's a very rudimentary version of a feudal system, there is one with absolute power who dominates over all, but has to carefully defend his borders and avoid insurgencies from others in power and large groups of "serfs" (the masses, the people who provide the substance for control).
     Finally, there are those who have no power and yet seek to attain it. These are the people who put down others and pull through the ranks to achieve repect. These people survive until another comes and takes their place. Often, the ones who achieve respect this way are the ones who have a complex enough understanding of the system to cheat it. This kind of respect is often short lived, and so power struggles to be just below a position of true power is always going on.
     Although this doesn't implicate much more than what is already known by most people I just felt like writing this article cause I felt all philisophical for some reason. Maybe it's cause I talked with Sam Gezelowitz? Hmmmmmm....
     Oh, and if you're wondering how that comment fit into the whole social darwinism theme, it's because I have power and I'm better then them simply because I have a website and a job. So, in an attempt to remove me from my position of power, these people show themselves to be "alpha-males" by putting their testosterone where their mouth is and insulting me. Which, in many ways, is a compliment to how much better I am than them, isn't it? The fact that they spent the time to read my stories or listen to my music demands respect in the first place, so what's to say these people don't respect me, and are afraid of the implications? Not much.