Move Over Darwin, Technology is at the Wheel Now

By kessia{Sage}

    As a slave, kessia could say that she is a follower of Gor, or that she wants to be owned only by a Gorean man, but she could not claim to be "Gorean", since that implies a host of things a slave cannot have, like honor. She assumes when other slaves claim to be "Gorean slaves", they mean that they will only serve a specific type of man, or that they hold certain beliefs about themselves and their slavery. This girl, for example, believes that there should be a natural order to things, in which the bigger and stronger are dominant over the weaker members. She also believes women are more likely than men to be submissive when faced with a stronger or more dominant society member. She believes that all human behavior occurs in a bell curve type shape: Extremes at either end and most of the population in the middle. In terms of dominant and submissive behaviors, she believes that those who are Gorean or who follow the philosophy included in the books fall at the extreme ends of the D/s behavioral bell curve. Within this group, or society, of Gorean Masters, FreeWomen and slaves there is the further complication that not everyone who says they are a Gorean Master, FreeWoman or slave actually are what they claim to be. There are really two classes of Goreans; those that would actually thrive on the planet of Gor if it existed, and those who probably would not survive, much less thrive. 

    Living in Western society means recognizing that fitness on Gor and fitness here mean two different, but not mutually exclusive things. A thriving male on Gor (Alpha) would have a certain set of characteristics like mental and physical strength, prowess and ability. A thriving male in this society (beta) is not required to have the same set of survival characteristics as a thriving male on Gor. More likely, he would be an intellectual desk jockey who rises to achieve significant buying power, and would be less likely to survive on Gor. Then there are AlphaBetas, who have characteristics that would enable them to comfortably thrive on either world. Were we all on the planet of Gor, this determination of who is and who is not able to thrive would be simple: Everyone who was Gorean would survive. Everyone who was not Gorean would be dead, or enslaved. A FreeWoman who acted like a slave would be collared, a slave who was not really submissive would learn it or die. A man who was not an Alpha (or AlphaBeta) would be enslaved or food for animals. Here on Earth and in Western society most especially, survival is not dependent on fitting into the natural order as Goreans understand it The old law of survival of the fittest has been repealed and replaced with 'survival of the best insured' and 'survival of the highest income', which often means 'survival of the most technologically able'.

    Nowhere is the lack of natural Gorean selection more apparent than in the Gor that is found online. Offline it is more readily apparent who is an Alpha (or AlphaBeta) and who is not. Being able to see how someone lives, listen to their voice and look into their eyes is often enough to distinguish between the 'ares' and 'are-nots'. Online, it is easy to mask one's true self either through self-deception or by simply being an out and out liar. People who actually could survive on Gor arrive in the midst of the weak and needy who flock to online to find what is missing from their lives. With "Master" in front of a name or because the name starts with a capital letter a male is given a certain level of power in the online arena, simply due to the way Goreans view the natural order. It is an automatic 'gimme' for the weak and does not follow the principle of Gorean natural selection. There is no way to permanently weed out the betas, nor demand anything more of them than typing and reading skill. A girl with a thesaurus can become the most beautiful of the slaviest slaves. Any henpecked Mr Meek can read a website or two and become Rask, the Ultimate Master. 

     Any slave in online Gor has had it drilled into her head that slaves do not judge the free. Certainly, in an ideal world, they should not. On Gor, awash in a sea of Alphas, a slave could pass all the judgment she wanted and it would mean exactly doodly-squat. There a slave could judge all the live long day and she would still have the same choice of pleasing obedience or punishment. Obviously, here is a bit different. Here, not everyone is Gorean, even if they say they are. A slave who is a follower of Gor has to assess who 'is' and who 'is not'. A slave failing to judge beyond a capitalized nickname is almost begging to end up face to face with some horny net geek or some perfectly nice beta who has not the first clue as to what being an Alpha is all about. Or worse. 

    Offline, it is a bit easier to handle coming nose to kneecaps with one of those beta males. If owned, she looks to her Master and treats the guy according to the Master's instructions. Lacking instructions, she treats him as an unowned girl would: With a polite but firm dismissal. Barring the odd nutjob, most betas behave just like they have been socialized to behave and they go away. For the odd nutjob, there is 911 or a baseball bat.

     In entering online, a slave has a number of choices. She can go to the "Disney Gor" rooms where slaves are tavern keepers and the men do not do anything to upset the girls' gift of submission. She can go to a cyber oriented tavern where she will (very likely) be expected to display her submissive nature through adjective laden paga service. She can go to a discussion room where the focus is less on cyber and more on reality based issues. She can refrain from chat altogether, sticking to email and discussion lists where her participation will probably not be required and selection can occur 'naturally' via the delete button.  

    A girl who knowingly enters either "Disney Gor" or "cyber Gor" is offering her unspoken agreement to abide by whatever the room conventions are. If a girl blunders into the room due to a misleading description or accidental click, then she offers her consent if and only if she remains in the room. By entering or remaining in a 'play' room, the slave sacrifices the luxury of credible complaint about the kassar speaking, silk whipping 'gamers' and 'posers' that exist therein. Put simply, if she knows it is beta central, she has a choice about whether or not to enter itor whether or not to remain.

    Visiting discussion based rooms does increase the likelihood that a slave will be speaking with Alphas, but there areno guarantees. Each of us has a story about the 'guy' we ran into the other day, last week, this morning. Hey, it happens. It happens because, contrary to how it should be, there is no natural selection in online Gor. If Darwin's law was up and functional, a girl would never be faced with the quandary of having to type a believable apology to some beta she knows good and well she could deck in a fight. 

    If a slave follows the philosophies of Gor, and believes in the idea of dominance and submission based natural order, why should she bow before a weak male, or one who is without a clue, even if it is only electronically? The pat answer is that "He is a Man, and you are a slave". The unspoken rule is that slaves are supposed to treat everyone with a capitalized nickname as if they are Alphas. Which is ironic, considering that slaves in the books consistently spurned Earth men, with at least one who thought spending time with them was a punishment (Book 14). Throughout the books, slaves (and other females) minimally obeyed those that are genetically male, all the while loathing them for lacking the strength, determination and will of a Man.

    When faced with beta males, the accepted behavior is to nod and smile and go on one's merry way, disregarding that it is counter to any sort of natural order. Slaves help weak males maintain their illusion of mastery and their gift of online power by rolling their eyes at the screen and behaving in a minimally correct fashion around them. Even though a slave may know that this is a spiderweb illusion at best, that she would never act this way offline unless ordered to do so by an Alpha (or AlphaBeta), and that it is not possible for the male to maintain dominance anywhere but online, the obligation remains on her to...lie. This runs counter to the idea of being true to oneself, and to the whole honesty is the best policy concept, but to do anything else is to run the risk of being assigned the tag of "failed slave". This may or may not be important to a girl, depending on who owns her, or if she is owned. It is so much easier to use the Gorean natural order as a shield (i.e. one is only a slave), instead of using whatever means a girl is permitted to show the betas she knows who they are. Perhaps looking bad, being shunned, or being proclaimed a 'failed slave' or 'not a slave' might just be more painful than just lying to the poor dude on the other end of the modem, so that his illusion of being a Master of the Universe is maintained.

    After all, what harm could it possibly do?

Free Range Rude 

As kessia read this month's article, she noted that she seemed to suggest that slaves ought to become free range rude in dealing with non-Goreans online. This was a failure of clarity on kessia's part that glared out at kessia as she re-read the section of "Hannibal" in which an orderly who looked after Hannibal Lecter reported that Dr. Lecter preferred to eat the rude and referred to them as "free range rude". In order to deter all those Lecters out there, she wishes to correct this failure post haste.

It has been kessia's experience that rudeness is rarely necessary. More often quiet, definite persistence or simple silence takes care of things more peacefully, and in the case of slaves, more appropriately than a rude remark. She offers a couple of examples:

This month kessia attended a discussion online. Another girl entered, in a long descriptive flurry of words. This girl messaged to tell the other girl that long descriptive stuff is most seriously frowned on during discussions in this room. Not trying to be rude, just trying to help as more senior girls did for kessia when she was first online. The girl messaged back, saying she was not allowed to message and kessia apologized, and then kessia got punished for being rude. Simple silence was more appropriate in that case than was the apology, no matter how nicely stated or how well intentioned.

A while back, kessia peeked into a tavern, typing her usual simple "enter and kneel" statement. Due to the lack of description, it was determined that kessia was new to Gor. She was assigned to a more 'senior' slave while the Master of the room explained to kessia that she would be a fine slave once her typing speed and content improved. On the verge of making a pithy, yet completely inappropriate remark, kessia took the time to think. (To those who know kessia, yes it does happen on occasion that kessia thinks before she speaks...just not as much as she should.) In thinking, she realized it is not her place to tell this Master who she is, whatshe does offline or anything. She thanked him for the advice and asked if she might please be dismissed.

Last but not least, Master and kessia attended a 'munch' a few years ago, in the hopes of meeting others offline that had similar life views. It was at a buffet restaurant, so kessia fixed Master's plate, zipping off for refills as needed. She also asked to be allowed soda, asked if she might get herself something to eat. All of this was in full view and hearing of Mr. R. Before leaving, a number of people exchanged email addresses with kessia (Mr. R among them). By the time Master and kessia got home, there was an email for kessia, marked private from Mr. R. In it he expressed desire to meet with kessia, with or without her Husband's (Mr. R capitalized the H) knowledge. Very upset at this man, she spent a few minutes grousing to Master, then sat down and informed Mr. R of her status and lack of desire to ever deceive her Master. In his reply to this, Mr. R apologized then stated he thought kessia was a Mistress, and was free to help him explore his submissive nature. A girl really, really wanted to point out that Mistresses and Masters rarely wait on their slaves, and that she had never heard of one asking for a slave's permission to do anything, as Mr. R had watched kessia do all evening. She wanted to congratulate him on trying to come up with any plausible reason for suggesting duplicity. She didn't though. She wrote a very nice letter expressing gladness that he was comfortable with himself, wishing him luck in finding a Mistress and other resources for sub males, and wishing him well with his life in general. Then she blocked his email address, turned to Master and begged to not have to attend any more munches.

The point of sharing all of these vignettes was to illustrate that kessia had choices in each situation. In each of these situations a girl could have been totally fake, totally rude, or polite, yet honest. Having these choices led kessia to make the statement that slaves contribute to the illusion of power online. If kessia had elected to be the slaviest of slaves, begging mercy for her foolishness, or pardon for offending some Master she does not know by messaging his girl, or pleading with some submissive male that he contact her Master, she would have added to the illusion that slaves need to type well in order to be slaves, that game playing is how she lives, and that submissive males actually have power over her. Instead, she stuck to the situation immediately at hand, and answered exactly the questions she was asked, and shut up once it became clear her input was totally unwelcome. In other words she behaved as she is, rather than according to some 'wonder-slave' criteria that would have a girl be deceptive. Yes, this means kessia walks a little closer to the edge of what is permitted to an online slave, but it also means that when she types she is sorry, or that she is crying and upset at having messed up, then she really is feeling that way. She is not merely typing the correct words, something she

A girl thinks one thing many get hung up on is in thinking that 'refraining from speaking' is in some way deceitful. Maybe it is because Master is in the military, but kessia lives by ATQA: Answer the Question Asked. If she feels she has some important information to impart, then she simply asks permission to offer the information. If no question is asked or permission is denied, it must be because kessia's input is not of interest at that time.

The next point she needs to address is that kessia has said that rudeness is rarely required of a slave, so many would wonder when exactly it is required. She is reminded of a scene from the movie "Roadhouse", in which Patrick Swayze plays a 'cooler' (kind of like a head bouncer). He is lecturing the bouncers on politeness. They say things like "What if some guy insults me?"

"Be polite" replies Swayze.

"But what if he spits on me?"

"Be polite."

"But what if.."

            "You are the bouncers, I am the cooler. Your job is to be polite until it's time to not be polite".

"How do we know when that is?"

 "I will tell you."

Put simply, she does not ever see that it is time to be rude until she is told to be so by her Master or whoever is in charge of the room she is in.

Collared or not, the online context would be one of the times it is appropriate to ask "Is anyone here on ignore please?", if there is some obviously obnoxious person typing their head off. Ask the keepers or ops, just the same as a girl would ask what the procedure is if she has the 'kneel for your true Master, bitch' target on her back.

In the offline context, uncollared slaves have a bit more leeway and a lot less slack in determining when it is time to be rude. They do not have to look to anyone to permit them to be rude, but if they are wrong, the price can be a great deal higher for inadvertent rudeness. Of course, because they are uncollared, they also have to handle those pesky "Mr. R" types on their own, without the benefit of "if you have further questions, one encourages you to contact her Master". In that vein, she recommends that any girl exploring offline reads "The Gift of Fear" by Gavin DeBecker. There are some very pertinent hints about how to handle those people who will not take a polite 'no' for an answer and she thinks it is worth the read for any girl exploring offline.