(no subject)

[andrewducker]

Wow. Just wow.

Fantastic piece on how much of reality is defined by concensus.

I'm just boggled by this.

I'm not 100% sure I believe it, but it wouldn't entirely surprise me.

I can't quote it without spoiling it, just go read it.

Comments

[weetanya.livejournal.com]

that totally rules.

[heron61.livejournal.com]

I've no idea if these events actually happened, but I'm fairly certain that they could have happened. That sort of behavior accords perfectly well with my own experience (which admittedly has never been anywhere near that extreme) and with modern theories of communications. Our environments and beliefs are extremely socially defined. After spending time with a groups of materialist scientists most people become more materialist, and after spending time with in a group of magicians, most people are more inclined to believe in magick. I find this story very hopeful and wonderful, it means that it would be far easier than most people think to break people out of our own rather oppressive and vile social reality.

[derumi.livejournal.com]

I find it fairly believable, especially since I've been through a similar situation. Going into a live-action Werewolf game (Bad Moon Rising) in Edmonton, Alberta, the only person I knew was my girlfriend at the time. So I could not tell the difference between the make-believe RCMP and the real RCMP.

Since they looked like real RCMP to me, I decided to err on the side of not getting shot. 9_9;; But at least there are in-game hand signals for indicating when you're dropping out of character in the White Wolf games I've played.

[kpollock.livejournal.com]

All I can say is that the wedding guests were either really stupid (and probably believed in UFOs, crop circles and faries at the bottom of the garden to start with!), really drunk or both. Maybe they were humouring the loonies as it was more interesting than the wedding (most get very dull).

I'm not arguing with the concept, but
that LARP scenario was just TOO far removed from reality to be even vaguely plausible. If it had been soem kind of near-future consipracy thing (for example) I can see that people might genuinely have been convinced.