Oops... sorry to have been a participant in opening this
can-of-worms, even if it is labeled as Off-Topic. Enough already.
Lest it gets lost in the shuffle of justifying the rant of a
relapsing alcoholic with a large fan-base - there WAS a real point
to all of this! ... yes, the original point that led to this
unfortunate digression is that the entertainment industry,
especially the video game industry...
AND THIS IS AN IMPORTANT SOCIETAL CHANGE
...for really the first time in the history - has put inordinate
amounts of *discretionary* wealth under the control of a
less-mature and less-responsible segments of society.
Sure, there have been child kings and pharaohs in the past, but
then as always, the real control of state was in the cadre of
military generals, religious priests, and ministers, and the child
king could do little permanent damage to those outside an
immediate purview. IOW the available wealth was comparatively
small and not very discretionary. How wealthy is any child-pharaoh
who cannot watch TV, enoy a Big Mac or get minimal dental work?
(turns out many of them suffered and died from dental abscesses).
These days, a population of wealthy computer geeks and movie and
recording stars -teenagers and up, but with tens of millions of
discretionary wealth at their disposal, presents another human
dynamic, especially in the information age - where *reality* and
*virtual reality* are converging rapidly - to the extent that real
confusion is certain, and rather soon.
From that point on - the repercussions of unaccountable wealth
digress into a myriad of possibilities, among which are very
elaborate ARGs in the future. This is likely since some of that
discretionary wealth is in the hands of the very segment of
techies who will know how to manipulate reality - to the extent
that an artificial reality story, of the "Wag the Dog" variety -
when fostered into mainstream media, can have negative intended
and unintended conswquences.
Yes....believe it or not, this post started out as pertaining to
the ARG trend of phenomenon ... and what that societal change
might mean to our future.
... if H.G. Wells was able to frighten the socks off of quite a
few farmers in New Jersey with "War of the Worlds" broadcast on
Radio in 1938 ... imagine.
well one thing for sure... the times they are a changin'
Jones
