So, David, what did you do at the weekend?
Sep. 7th, 2004 02:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
davywavyWell, er...
I was chatting to someone a while ago about how we spent our respective weekends; they’d gone out clubbing and spent the weekend ramming the nearest pharmaceutical into the most appropriate orifice, whilst I’d dressed up as a monster in the upstairs room of a pub (I’d been clubbing too, but the contradiction in our lifestyles was clear enough…).
Something about this struck me as odd, and thinking about it, it came to me what it is. In the industry I work in (Media, darling), and especially some of the offices I’ve worked in, the standard Monday-morning conversation was of the ‘I went out clubbing on Saturday and got off my tits on [Insert trendy drug du jour here]’ variety. However, you can bet money that when I was asked what I’d got up to over the weekend, my answer never began “Well, some orcs had kidnapped the miller’s daughter and stolen a bull to try and breed a minotaur…”
But why is this? When did excessive drug use become socially acceptable, and why is hanging out with your friends telling stories and at worst dressing up not acceptable in most social contexts? How did this happen?
When you think about it, it’s damned strange. Drug culture and the drugs trade have demonstrable links to organised crime, corruption, and hundreds – if not thousands – of deaths and murders ever year. Roleplaying, on the other hand, has demonstrable links to eating too many Pringles and pizzas, not getting enough exercise and – at the most outrageous estimate - three deaths (unless you’re Jack Chick, of course). But, oddly, the majority of people are more willing to boast about – and much more willing to accept – association with a culture which leads to untold human suffering and corruption than they are willing to accept association with a culture whose worst sins revolve about poor personal hygiene and not having a girlfriend.
Some years ago, the government ran a sex-education advertising campaign which pointed out that when you sleep with someone then you were sleeping with everyone they had ever gone to bed with too*. This is possibly the best analogy as to why I dislike drug culture: it doesn’t exist in isolation. When purchasing drugs, it isn’t just buying them off your local dealer – it’s buying them off everyone in the chain of control and production, and everyone affected by that chain. It never ceases to amuse me (in a bleak sort of way) that it is very often the same people who have no problem with drug use who rail the most against government and civil corruption. Bearing in mind that a vast amount of the money which pays for that corruption (especially in the third world) comes from that selfsame drugs trade and associated organised crime, I can’t help but look askance at the apparent immunity to irony which so many people seem to display.
And then we’re back to roleplaying. It’s a hobby which (on the face of it, at least) promotes and generates social interaction, creative, analytical, and flexible thought, and wit: and yet, despite all of that, it’s got a fairly shocking reputation and most certainly isn’t cool. I just can’t help but feel that it’s odd that actively and artificially altering and reducing higher thought processes is widely seen as a better way of spending time that doing the exact opposite. What am I missing here?
Okay, there’s a caveat to all of this, and that’s the sort of people that gaming attracts tend to be ones with fairly poor real-world social skills. We’ve all met ‘em, and the fatbeards are often the people with whom gaming is most associated in the public eye. However, it can hardly be said that the poster children for drug culture are exactly going to be getting invited to any parties either, so really it isn’t the people within the lifestyles who define the acceptability of that lifestyle.
Is it the media, perhaps? As previously noted, I've worked in some environments where I was far the exception rather than the rule for not indulging my nostrils at every opportunity, and gamers were thin on the ground to say the least. Is it control of the message which defines the society around it?
By this point, I know some people will be thinking: ‘But the drugs laws are worng/unfair/stupid/lah lah lah and we should all hold hands and sing a song instead.’. I’m not interested in debating the rightness or wrongness of the legislation; the fact that the black market which thrives through illegality is responsible for a tremendous amount of human suffering, and being involved in that chain is effectively condoning that suffering, is undeniable. If the law changed then I’m sure many other things would too, but for the moment it’s okay to break the law if you think it’s wrong, right, kids? Oh, and if none of your family are being forced at gunpoint to work in Columbian Coca plantations either, obviously.
All that said: the day anyone can put into pill form the feeling I got when I saw the expression on![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
baalazamon’s face when I told him just what I was going to do to the Valentine of Set**, I’m buying.
*A thought which, if I’m reminded of it at the right moment, is capable of causing me to curl into a whimpering, semi-catatonic ball and scratch at my eyes.
**Valentine of Set: It’s like being bride of Dracula, but less of a commitment.
I was chatting to someone a while ago about how we spent our respective weekends; they’d gone out clubbing and spent the weekend ramming the nearest pharmaceutical into the most appropriate orifice, whilst I’d dressed up as a monster in the upstairs room of a pub (I’d been clubbing too, but the contradiction in our lifestyles was clear enough…).
Something about this struck me as odd, and thinking about it, it came to me what it is. In the industry I work in (Media, darling), and especially some of the offices I’ve worked in, the standard Monday-morning conversation was of the ‘I went out clubbing on Saturday and got off my tits on [Insert trendy drug du jour here]’ variety. However, you can bet money that when I was asked what I’d got up to over the weekend, my answer never began “Well, some orcs had kidnapped the miller’s daughter and stolen a bull to try and breed a minotaur…”
But why is this? When did excessive drug use become socially acceptable, and why is hanging out with your friends telling stories and at worst dressing up not acceptable in most social contexts? How did this happen?
When you think about it, it’s damned strange. Drug culture and the drugs trade have demonstrable links to organised crime, corruption, and hundreds – if not thousands – of deaths and murders ever year. Roleplaying, on the other hand, has demonstrable links to eating too many Pringles and pizzas, not getting enough exercise and – at the most outrageous estimate - three deaths (unless you’re Jack Chick, of course). But, oddly, the majority of people are more willing to boast about – and much more willing to accept – association with a culture which leads to untold human suffering and corruption than they are willing to accept association with a culture whose worst sins revolve about poor personal hygiene and not having a girlfriend.
Some years ago, the government ran a sex-education advertising campaign which pointed out that when you sleep with someone then you were sleeping with everyone they had ever gone to bed with too*. This is possibly the best analogy as to why I dislike drug culture: it doesn’t exist in isolation. When purchasing drugs, it isn’t just buying them off your local dealer – it’s buying them off everyone in the chain of control and production, and everyone affected by that chain. It never ceases to amuse me (in a bleak sort of way) that it is very often the same people who have no problem with drug use who rail the most against government and civil corruption. Bearing in mind that a vast amount of the money which pays for that corruption (especially in the third world) comes from that selfsame drugs trade and associated organised crime, I can’t help but look askance at the apparent immunity to irony which so many people seem to display.
And then we’re back to roleplaying. It’s a hobby which (on the face of it, at least) promotes and generates social interaction, creative, analytical, and flexible thought, and wit: and yet, despite all of that, it’s got a fairly shocking reputation and most certainly isn’t cool. I just can’t help but feel that it’s odd that actively and artificially altering and reducing higher thought processes is widely seen as a better way of spending time that doing the exact opposite. What am I missing here?
Okay, there’s a caveat to all of this, and that’s the sort of people that gaming attracts tend to be ones with fairly poor real-world social skills. We’ve all met ‘em, and the fatbeards are often the people with whom gaming is most associated in the public eye. However, it can hardly be said that the poster children for drug culture are exactly going to be getting invited to any parties either, so really it isn’t the people within the lifestyles who define the acceptability of that lifestyle.
Is it the media, perhaps? As previously noted, I've worked in some environments where I was far the exception rather than the rule for not indulging my nostrils at every opportunity, and gamers were thin on the ground to say the least. Is it control of the message which defines the society around it?
By this point, I know some people will be thinking: ‘But the drugs laws are worng/unfair/stupid/lah lah lah and we should all hold hands and sing a song instead.’. I’m not interested in debating the rightness or wrongness of the legislation; the fact that the black market which thrives through illegality is responsible for a tremendous amount of human suffering, and being involved in that chain is effectively condoning that suffering, is undeniable. If the law changed then I’m sure many other things would too, but for the moment it’s okay to break the law if you think it’s wrong, right, kids? Oh, and if none of your family are being forced at gunpoint to work in Columbian Coca plantations either, obviously.
All that said: the day anyone can put into pill form the feeling I got when I saw the expression on
baalazamon’s face when I told him just what I was going to do to the Valentine of Set**, I’m buying.*A thought which, if I’m reminded of it at the right moment, is capable of causing me to curl into a whimpering, semi-catatonic ball and scratch at my eyes.
**Valentine of Set: It’s like being bride of Dracula, but less of a commitment.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
interactive theatre
Date: 2004-09-07 06:40 am (UTC)It is indeed odd. You are meant to grow out of using your imagination to help you see the world a different way, and presumably then grow into using drugs to let you achieve just the same result, although probably with less plot.
It's possibly somethign to do with the dice. Dice (even shiny purple ones) are just not cool, hip or trendy.
Re: interactive theatre
Date: 2004-09-07 06:42 am (UTC)I agonised for ages how to put running the Cam on my CV, and eventually gave up on that as a bad idea and just never mention it.
Re: interactive theatre
Date: 2004-09-07 07:09 am (UTC)if anyone asks in interview you can ramble on about transferable skills and problem solving and assertivness and teamwork.
most interviews where someones asked me I've tended to get the job n(possibly inspite of that though)
Re: interactive theatre
Date: 2004-09-07 07:10 am (UTC)I like to think that my Corporate Giovanni got me at least one job :)
Re: interactive theatre
Date: 2004-09-07 07:38 am (UTC)I confess I have,in a previous job, taken someone off a shortlist because they put rp-ing on their cv...
Re: interactive theatre
Date: 2004-09-08 03:58 am (UTC)Re: interactive theatre
Date: 2004-09-08 05:20 am (UTC)Why did I reject the RPer? Because I was running a small team that, because of the work it was doing, was very unpopular with the rest of the company. Consequently I couldn't run the risk of someone not fitting in and disrupting the unified, cooperative outlook that my team had to have to get the job done. On paper the Christian RPer was the best qualified candidate, but I picked a shortlist of less well-qualified candidates that I thought would suit the chemistry of the team better.
Re: interactive theatre
Date: 2004-09-07 06:44 am (UTC)Re: interactive theatre
Date: 2004-09-07 07:34 am (UTC)But then I do work in IT, where there's a better than even chance people will know what I'm on about.
And I'm pretty sure I got this job on the strength of it - certainly I spent half the interview discussing systems and the difficulty of running large LRPs with my now-boss :)