Can't Keep the Corporate Out
My vision of a virtual Utopia or mild Atlantis is starting to fade but I must have faith. Without faith in TRUTH married to intuitive, Galileo and Columbus would have never achieved that status they have now. Ummm sadly, it took over 350 years for the Vatican to clear Galileo of heresy in reporting that the earth did in fact revolve around the sun. I'm not sure how the Vatican trial system works but come on! 350 something years?! And you didn't need DNA testing to prove his claim. So what does that tell you about the Vatican System? Okay, I won't go there.
SL now has more than a million residents and their daily profit has increased considerably. I have no doubt that this will be the trend - a steady increase. After reading a few online articles here and there and blogger opinions it is almost disheartening to see that as much as SL can BE a realm of exploratory fantasy and character building and soulful connections, and as much as Linden Lab is soon becoming a Corporate something or other, the fact that RL corporations are starting up their own regions/islands is a reason for me to sit and wonder.
Will the influence of corporate giants in SL influence the acts and motives and behaviour of the residents? After all, RL corporations are the big game players when it comes to RL. It seems as if everything is dictated by these moneymaking/investor driven organisms. Note that I said organisms and not organizations.
Will the presence of these corporate leaders start to dictate the tone and flow of SL? What the hell are you talking about Maxine? You on drugs?
Drugs? Hell no! I respect my body, thank you.
I mean, if Starbucks opens up a region/island (and they will), will residents hang out there just to be pretentious and to meet other pretentious avatars that want to be seen and associated with STARBUCKS? And so what if they do?! Nothing, absolutely nothing.
If Starbucks is a platform for people to come together to meet up and exchange ideas and even 'hook up' then so much the better. But what about these corporations that want an SL presence and will obviously restrict access to employees etc? Is that so bad? No, not at all.
Then what is my point? Exactly, I may not have a point yet, but I will.
It would be nice to see if these RL corporations in SL will allow their employees to create their own avatar in whatever way they want and to obviously dress in whatever way they want OR will they expect their employee's avatars to dress appropriately and act appropriately and maybe even have Casual Fridays?
And what about sexual harassment issues? If an employee avatar is Xcite enabled and another avatar accidently clicks on a certain body part, is that considered sexual harrassment?
And what will happen to office affairs or to those employees that have been attracted to one another but never DID take the plunge? Will they be sneaking off to some Free Sex Community and play there?
Oh the never ending questions.
Fact is, corporations are a living, breathing form of organisms that can never be kept out of anything or anywhere. They live to exist and they will do what they will do. If we can't keep the corporate out (and that may be a good thing) then we can sure as hell keep opening our minds and hearts to a deeper understanding of the social and global consciousness.
We must try to achieve and maintain integrity in what we do and who we are, both in SL and RL.
Good news. The U.S. Congress has not yet found a way to tax SL investments!
SL now has more than a million residents and their daily profit has increased considerably. I have no doubt that this will be the trend - a steady increase. After reading a few online articles here and there and blogger opinions it is almost disheartening to see that as much as SL can BE a realm of exploratory fantasy and character building and soulful connections, and as much as Linden Lab is soon becoming a Corporate something or other, the fact that RL corporations are starting up their own regions/islands is a reason for me to sit and wonder.
Will the influence of corporate giants in SL influence the acts and motives and behaviour of the residents? After all, RL corporations are the big game players when it comes to RL. It seems as if everything is dictated by these moneymaking/investor driven organisms. Note that I said organisms and not organizations.
Will the presence of these corporate leaders start to dictate the tone and flow of SL? What the hell are you talking about Maxine? You on drugs?
Drugs? Hell no! I respect my body, thank you.
I mean, if Starbucks opens up a region/island (and they will), will residents hang out there just to be pretentious and to meet other pretentious avatars that want to be seen and associated with STARBUCKS? And so what if they do?! Nothing, absolutely nothing.
If Starbucks is a platform for people to come together to meet up and exchange ideas and even 'hook up' then so much the better. But what about these corporations that want an SL presence and will obviously restrict access to employees etc? Is that so bad? No, not at all.
Then what is my point? Exactly, I may not have a point yet, but I will.
It would be nice to see if these RL corporations in SL will allow their employees to create their own avatar in whatever way they want and to obviously dress in whatever way they want OR will they expect their employee's avatars to dress appropriately and act appropriately and maybe even have Casual Fridays?
And what about sexual harassment issues? If an employee avatar is Xcite enabled and another avatar accidently clicks on a certain body part, is that considered sexual harrassment?
And what will happen to office affairs or to those employees that have been attracted to one another but never DID take the plunge? Will they be sneaking off to some Free Sex Community and play there?
Oh the never ending questions.
Fact is, corporations are a living, breathing form of organisms that can never be kept out of anything or anywhere. They live to exist and they will do what they will do. If we can't keep the corporate out (and that may be a good thing) then we can sure as hell keep opening our minds and hearts to a deeper understanding of the social and global consciousness.
We must try to achieve and maintain integrity in what we do and who we are, both in SL and RL.
Good news. The U.S. Congress has not yet found a way to tax SL investments!
posted by Maxine Montale at 6:46 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home