While I think the author has a lot of insightful points, I think they're flat out wrong on one of their biggest assertions, that nerds don't care about poplularity and they don't play that game. They do play, oh how they play. I would probably have been a B or C tabler, depending on the time period. And I saw the same back biting, popularity knife fighting amongst the in-crowd as the nerdy outcasts. It always struck me how nerds and jocks were seemingly like opposite ends of a spectrum, like facism and communism in the political realm. It's just that the what each side values is completely different than what the others value. Social skills, superficial looks, athletic ability being (stereo)typical of A Tablers and Vast Specialized Knowledge, Scorn for Establishment, and Technical Skills being the prized nerd cred. One only has to look to the Internet, which I think I'm not wrong is saying has a higher percentage of nerds etc... than elsewhere, to see how it plays out. Whether it's the gamers, the message boardies, or fandom communities to see these same games spew forth in all the wretched bile that is popularity one-uppance. He's spot on though about how these sterile, self created societies frequently devolve into ridgid caste systems where kicking those lower boosts you higher, because they don't have consequences beyond their world. The internet is the zenith of this. ---------------
-Jon
Leo (July 23-Aug. 22)
The population density of Wyoming is very low, but that doesn't mean the people there aren't also out to kill you.
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Jon
"And that must have caused my dad's brain to break in half, replaced by a purely mechanical engine of revenge!"
-Jon
Leo (July 23-Aug. 22)
The population density of Wyoming is very low, but that doesn't mean the people there aren't also out to kill you.
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Jon
"And that must have caused my dad's brain to break in half, replaced by a purely mechanical engine of revenge!"