Registered: Oct 2000
Location: canadian rockies
Posts: 1526

A wild and Savage Hue.

Welcome to walled community of the asylum.

I have often wondered about the nature of the Internet and the communities herein.

I have come up with a theory.

We are essentially recreating the small isolated frontier communities that forged ahead into the western territories of North America (or any colonized frontier land) in a virtual space.

Look at the settlement of America. A group of persecuted or rebellious people breaks free of their homeland in Europe and embarks on a crusade to find the New World.

They seek an idyllic, free homeland where their ideas can be expressed and their world can be defined by the strength of their hands.

They find a harsh nearly empty land. Sparsely populated by strange savages that hold archaic and obscure ideas about god and morality and the land . They forge a small, brittle handhold in this land and eke out an existence.

In time the community stands. It grows slowly with new arrivals and stretches it's legs.

Soon the riverbanks and oceanfronts are full. The community has become a rigid city and small groups begin to splinter away from the trunk.

Those unstill spirits, whom we call pioneer, wonder off...Into the Land with the Wild and Savage Hue.

In the undiscovered country of the west they find paths to glory and paths to death.

Free, they were. Escaped at last from the religious rigidity of the east they fought the Indian and winter. Their towns became forts.

The nature of these outposts necessitated the entrance of anyone but the most dangerous outlaws. Regardless of beliefs or methods or appearance all could enter...provided they followed the very elemental, unwritten rules of the community.

The night-garbed, scions of justice dealt with trespassers to these rules. Frontier justice. A gun and a rope. A two faced beast at best.

While a stranger hangs for horsetheft my neighbor takes my horse unannounced in the night. Because he has contributed to the welfare of me and mine the act goes largely unadmonished. Survival keeps us hard but not without understanding of our place in the balance of things. Those who don't understand perish.

We establish trade and commerce. We open links to other communities. We play and fight and drink and laugh and dance. We are a community and rely on each other. Each for something. Each for one another. Even the town drunk and the misanthrope fit into some corner of what is, for us, the place we have strove to live.

From the blacksmith I get shoes for the horse I ride to hunt for the meat I sell to the butcher who feeds the gentleman farmers who trade in wheat who provide the moonshiner with rye who sells to the public house who pays the singer in whiskey and board.

And so it goes. The west is won.

The parallel seems fairly obvious. The future remains unknown and probably the same...


selah.



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Happiness is a moveable feast.

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Registered: Jan 2001
Location: library
Posts: 19584

As a long time geek who has been playing around with cyber communities(BBS,forums,chats,whatever) for about 13 years now, I have to say that I like your analogy. I will now go buy myself a covered wagon, some shit kickin boots and a straw hat. I will number myself among the proud pioneers.


Ok, so I won't buy a ridiculous outift, but I did buy a fancy new computer so I can continue to forge bravely into the future. Thank you for a positive outlook on my geekdom.

-m


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I like my soapbox...

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Registered: Sep 2000
Location: Playa d'en London
Posts: 9826

the futures bright

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'But I don't want to go among mad people,' Alice remarked.
'Oh, you can't help that,' said the Cat: 'we're all mad here'.

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Registered: Jan 2001
Location: library
Posts: 19584

quote:

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Originally posted by urbanjunkie:
the futures bright

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Registered: Jul 2000
Location: Upstate NY
Posts: 10152

must|resist|the|urge|to|do|the|vision|thing

Very nice post Mr. bowmore. I saw your post in Suggestions earlier on this topic and hoped you would expand on it. The future is indeed bright. Thank you.

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SETI@Home: join us!

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Registered: Oct 2000
Location: canadian rockies
Posts: 1526

quote:

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Originally posted by Mordecai:


Thank you for a positive outlook on my geekdom.

-m

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Registered: Aug 2000
Location:
Posts: 3539

I would like to buy Mr. Bowmore a Wild Turkey on the rocks.

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