04-17-2014, 12:58 AM
What an interesting conversation. I love this kind of speculation.
Not to blare my own horn, but to give another example of the more dystopian-end of the cultural spectrum, I might point out the very Hunger Games/Battle Royale-esque string of combat-trained youth of which Takeo was a part. Not only was it not particularly frowned-upon, but many schools drew funding from televising the exploits and extreme - often fatal - training operations of the children in these programs. This was only about 15 years ago, but there were at least half a dozen such schools in DIV and elsewhere, before they were eventually shut down.
I think tragic oversights like those schools, and the backlash that eventually helped overthrow them, is all part of the ebb and flow, culture and counter-culture of human existence. But, just as Spectra rose out of the adult entertainment industry, Takeo also profited from his seedy past.
In fact, I'm rather amazed Takeo and Spectra have not crossed paths before. Or have they?
But, aside from us, I would tend to agree with a certain desensitization of the modern world under the CCD regime. Some, such as Takeo and Nikolai, obviously push an agenda of "don't look behind the curtain", and I think a lot of people do that just to get by. They go to work, they keep their heads down, they ignore the things they hear in the news - which is obviously highly-regulated anyway - while simultaneously pitying/despising the 'other' world. I see it fairly akin to 1984 in that even with our superior intel, tech and access, we're still in a sense brainwashed to our own culture's propaganda - the CCD demonizes the US, and vice versa.
And now with 'Gods' emerging among the fray, it will be interesting to see how the world reacts. Will more temples be built? Will each of the new Gods have their own followers? Or will people start to see them less as Gods and more as mutants? Is it genetic or divine?
Interesting times ahead.
Not to blare my own horn, but to give another example of the more dystopian-end of the cultural spectrum, I might point out the very Hunger Games/Battle Royale-esque string of combat-trained youth of which Takeo was a part. Not only was it not particularly frowned-upon, but many schools drew funding from televising the exploits and extreme - often fatal - training operations of the children in these programs. This was only about 15 years ago, but there were at least half a dozen such schools in DIV and elsewhere, before they were eventually shut down.
I think tragic oversights like those schools, and the backlash that eventually helped overthrow them, is all part of the ebb and flow, culture and counter-culture of human existence. But, just as Spectra rose out of the adult entertainment industry, Takeo also profited from his seedy past.
In fact, I'm rather amazed Takeo and Spectra have not crossed paths before. Or have they?
But, aside from us, I would tend to agree with a certain desensitization of the modern world under the CCD regime. Some, such as Takeo and Nikolai, obviously push an agenda of "don't look behind the curtain", and I think a lot of people do that just to get by. They go to work, they keep their heads down, they ignore the things they hear in the news - which is obviously highly-regulated anyway - while simultaneously pitying/despising the 'other' world. I see it fairly akin to 1984 in that even with our superior intel, tech and access, we're still in a sense brainwashed to our own culture's propaganda - the CCD demonizes the US, and vice versa.
And now with 'Gods' emerging among the fray, it will be interesting to see how the world reacts. Will more temples be built? Will each of the new Gods have their own followers? Or will people start to see them less as Gods and more as mutants? Is it genetic or divine?
Interesting times ahead.