RPG Geeks and Fantasy Addicts

My cousin has become the source of my envy lately.

Anyone who used to play RPGs will recall "Dragon" magazine, which he has been fortunate enough to recover a whole boatload of early issues of. It has since occured to me that younger people no longer care about fiction anymore because they have such easy methods of accessing the imagination of others, such as through audio/visual channels.

When I was a lad, my imagination was my key to developing a soul that was endangered of being swallowed by the city I lived in. Playing RPGs with my friends was the only way to keep a level head sometimes, ya know?

You just don't get that these days out of the young people I talk to.

So funny - I read this article by Gary Gygax and he was complaining about Conan the Barabarian (the film). His main compalint was that Schwartzenegger had brown hair, whereas Conan had black hair. What an innocent time! God, kids today could give a rats ass less about being kids any more!

Really sad.

What happened to people? Seems like we're raising people to not have dreams anymore! Think I might just start getting back into them. Something. My imagination is my most precious gift. I'd hate to lose it.

The answer: get out of red states.

I'm kidding, to a lesser degree. There are tons of habits of a mono-culture that encourages complacency.

There are kids who want change - there are productive counter-cultures that exist, but need nurturing. A non-red state reference - Seattle's police department would like to see all-ages venues subject to nigh-impossible standards. What does this mean? Less-to-none all-ages shows.

For a majority of under-21, this is just cutting into their social options. There might be a dozen or more good potentials who walk away from what they could have been, because they were rejected by the system. There will be more who feel that way, that an age-stratified system is just the way of the world.

I'm agreeing with you - it's easier for positions of authority to enforce their will and desires on an unwilling populace. It's an empty gesture - something that bullies can pull off, but real adults need to know better.

Sheep go to heaven, goats go to hell.