DISQUS

Phasing Grace: Fun With the Linden Lab Family Tree

  • Prokofy Neva · 10 months ago
    Grace, in the United States, we have what we like to call "separation of powers" and "three branches of government". So President Obama doesn't have to "run the country" with only 15 cabinet members like the Soviet general secretaries had to run the Soviet Union with only as many Politburo members. No, Bam has what we like to call "Congress" to help "run the country" which has 435 members in both House and Senate, and what we like to call the "Judiciary" which has 9 active justices.

    These three branches all work with what we like to call the "checks and balances" system, and there are also other factors like "the Fourth Estate" (the media", "The American People" and "Robert Scoble".

    We don't have any of those things in Second Life, which is an executive, authoritarian power with only very week input from "the Fourth Estate".

    The new dispensation has only worsened this feature as former rump democratic institutions like "Town Halls" or even "office hours" for executives have all been dismantled.
  • gracemcdunnough · 10 months ago
    You are right of course; I need some tag for "tongue in cheek". That was actually a quote I overheard the other day in a restaurant, but I should not have been so cavalier. I'm going to update that, since the last thing I need is confusion and misunderstanding for readers, esp. those outside the U.S.

    On your last note - do you think there are ways to have constructive two-way conversations with the Linden team?
  • IYan Writer · 10 months ago
    Well, things didn't work before, so let's hope it's multiplication and not addition (-1 and -1)..
  • Prokofy Neva · 10 months ago
    Short answer: No.

    Also, you could hear such a quote in a restaurant because that's how people really think. They really think that's what the presidency is all about, and that their riding on it is merely an express train to their having power over other people using sole executive authority.
  • Chance Abattoir · 10 months ago