Published May 14/2009 by Cameroncars
YouTube: James Bond - Quantum of solace opening (HD!) (4:31)
The joke is this: After watching this movie, I leave the cinema and climb in my car. I start the engine, check the area around me, and slowly make my way out of the parking lot, always on the lookout for pedestrians and other vehicles. On the way home, I follow the speed limit; I stop at every red light and stop sign; and I always signal my turns. In other words, I drive nothing like James Bond and remain a responsible and reasonable adult. I am not in any way like a fictious movie hero. I am a real life person. I know the difference between fantasy and reality. Never the twain shall meet.
In my piece Second Life: We're not going to meet in Real Life. (1,600 words, 7-minute read), I say that we can live out our fantasies in this virtual world, free from the constraints of real life. But if we try to bring those fantasies into real life, we give up those freedoms. In SL, I can have unprotected sex. In SL, I can meet people without regard for age, class, geography, or race. In SL, I have no worries about my reputation with family, friends, or my place of employment.
But the above James Bond video is meant to bring up another point. Even if I try to bring a fantasy into real life, I can't do it. I'm not James Bond. I can't drive like that, and I recognize the danger of driving like that in the real world.
In RL, I can't have unprotected sex. Well, not with strangers. I've mulled over the idea of sex in this modern day and age and thought that any two people who decide to go to the next level and be physically intimate, should be open to getting tested and sharing those test results with each other to confirm their health status. Obviously, this all seems clinical and takes away from the romance or the passion of the moment. My sister had protected sex when she was 25 years old and contracted genital herpes which is transmitted from skin-to-skin contact. A condom protected her from pregnancy but not from this. There is no cure, and she's had to deal with it her entire adult life. In other words, in the real world, there are always risks and despite our best efforts, we may not escape the consequences of our actions. Well, isn't that enough to scare the bejesus out of you?
I joke that in SL, I never get a cramp in my leg. Am I physically able to accomplish all that I do in an SL fantasy? Can I even come close? Sure I can't fly in RL or teleport - some things are impossible - but if I can't drive like James Bond, can I make love like him? I've joked more than once:
/me looks around anxiously for the club defibrillator.
I'm reminded of the title of the biography of Jim Morrison by Jerry Hopkins and Danny Sugarman: No One Here Gets Out Alive.
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SL is fantasy; RL is reality. In SL, I can TP out of an uncomfortable situation. I can block, mute, or derez an unwanted pest. In RL, sometimes even a restraining order is insufficient to stop unwelcomed advances. Pepper spray or Taser, anyone? In SL, family, friends, possibly spouse, fellow employees or my boss are never going to hear about my scandalous escapades. In RL, how can I find anyone I can trust to keep their fat mouth shut? Fired, divorced, disowned, possibly thrown in jail are all possible outcomes if I run into the wrong person who feels it is their moral duty to let the world know I'm doing something they disapprove of. (Trust: Why do people reveal secrets?)
I'm repeating myself but it merits retelling. In SL, people feel the liberty to say or do what they want without fear of criticism and condemnation. The reason they don't do those things in RL is because they can't find the right partners and consequently the right circumstances. My Rule of the Three Rights: At the right time, in the right place, with the right partner, anything is possible. The problem we all have is that we can't get all three rights at the same time. And I might contend the third right, the right partner may be the most difficult right to get. |
Final Word
The reason all this came up, hence this article, was because a person I've known for over 14 years, with whom I've shared fantasies, with whom I share a deep trust, has said to me on more than one occasion that out of all the people she has known on SL, she has thought about meeting me in RL. While I'm honoured, I know we're going to be disappointed. RL can't match the fantasy of SL. RL would require an adjustment. RL would require getting to know a different person, for while our RL mind is the same in SL and RL, we are two different people. In RL, I'm not James Bond. I'd like to sit at the bar, sipping my shaken not stirred, looking as cool as heck, but just now, I glanced at myself in the bathroom mirror and discovered I've got a piece of spinach stuck between my two front teeth.
References
my blog: Second Life: We're not going to meet in Real Life. (1,600 words, 7-minute read) - Nov 18/2022
I first came to Second Life in January 2010, and it has never occurred to me to meet anybody in real life. I have other social media accounts like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, etc. but there, too, I've never had the urge to meet somebody. The purpose of those platforms is to interact with people on those platforms, not in RL.
my blog: Trust: Why do people reveal secrets? (1,000 words, 4-minute read) - May 28/2024
some people have a tendency to reveal secrets. Why do they do it? Does it make them feel important as they know something somebody else doesn't? Do they feel superior to the person who has the secret?
my blog: My Rule of the Three Rights (400 words, 2-minute read) - June 13/2022
It seems obvious but then again, everything bears repeating.
2024-07-13
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