Down the River

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Tanoujin Milestone
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Down the River

Post by Tanoujin Milestone »

Virtual democracy and the avatarian condition

I have got rid of the illusion the CDS would be fully souvereign. We depend on Linden Labs. But within this frame there is freedom of choice, and because decisions refer to limitations in all possible worlds, this could be a small reason for unspecific melancholy. We just can not take over. But we can be an alternative, this has to be good enough.

We can agree on rules to subdivide the field of choice that is given. All democracies not fully souvereign work like this. The advantages of articulated rules are obvious: chaos is the opposite of structure. It is fragmentation, unability to elaborate on one's own interests, to solve conflicts, to establish relyable social relations beyond the borders of privacy. Of course there are silent rules in force then, wearing the coat of probability and randomness.

Because chaos is boring, one may feel the need to join a project. This projects are subdivisions of the "SL community", they set conditions and structure the public sphere. There are various options to join as a consument, volunteer or an employee of an enterprise or institution. You are a member of something and feel a little better.

As a member of such a group or society, you may be interested in self organization. You may reject the "lead, follow or get out of the way" principle. To put this straight: a democracy that simply enables the majority to rule, offers a playground to VIPs and expells disturbers is - in my opinion - disgusting. This is the "tribalistic" approach. I would even prefer the gentle shepherd in this case.

Credo: A democracy has not only to take the interests of its minorities into account, but the interest of every person that may be affected by its rules. Oh, i know this is utopian. Feel free to laugh at me.

Another point is what rules this democracy accepts as a frame. And it is a temptation to accept more rules than necessary, to avoid conflicts and work. It surely minimizes the risks - but at what price?

The CDS accepts the LL ToS, because there is no workaround. The CDS upholds the UDHR and accepts the problems to translate it to the conditions of a SL Resident. All other rules are our own. We claim to be a virtual state. Me, for one, stands by this fundamental choice. We accept enough alien rules, we accept all kind of restrictive first life national legislation through LL, because we have to.

In case the CDS decides to become a First Life Non Profit to solve the IP issues, that is submit under any First Life national legislation by its own choice, this project may have failed. I am fine with nonprofits, but the CDS should not be one. It should value relative autonomy higher than the advantages of being a first life entity. As soon as we arrived there, we will no longer be an alternative, we will be one of those projects. In my opinion the SC should take care of this scenario and anwer the question if the Non Profit solution isn't selling the CDS down the river, BEFORE the specific discussion about how we should swallow the bait starts.

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Re: Down the River

Post by Bromo Ivory »

Well put, Tan! I happen to agree with your posting. We are in a strange situation with the ToS, RL laws. And we could do more to respect minority opinion rights.

Interestingly enough, non-profit status allows a 50% reduction in tier and purchase price for SIMs (drawback is that you must pay 6 months of tier in advance I think). I do not believe we have that currently, but it is another consideration.

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