Geeks

I've been getting snappish everytime I've heard the g-word lately. I'm going to vent my issues here and hope that it relieves the pressure. Feel free to skip this.

Anyone who's been by Wired or Slashdot or any other popular tech oriented web site in the past five minutes has doubtlessly heard that geeks are taking over the world. This pains me to my heart because I know that it is simply not true, as much as I wish it was. I know because I've seen the people that were called geeks back when the word was an insult instead of a banner. I assure you that the people who were called geeks are not taking over the world. Far from it. They continue to be shunned, powerless and avoided by the world at large. They don't get dates, they don't have plans for the weekends that don't consist of playing video games or watching movies with the other rejects, they are not appreciated at work or at school and they most certainly are not taking over the world.

The people who are taking over the world are the same ones who've been running it all along. Extroverts, scenesters, every kind of socially adept politically saavy social group you care to name. These are the people taking over the world just as they've taken over the moniker geek. They follow comics, books, games and movies the same way a day trader follows currencies and beef futures. They adapt their tastes to give them the widest spread of common interests with the widest spread of people possible. This is a very smart thing to do. It ensures popularity and desirability amongst one's peers. It is quite an essential skill to master if one is to take over the world as these people are.

The old version of geek was nothing anyone would aspire to be. Geeks were geeks because they were as God had made them. No one in their right mind would want to be one, least of all the geeks themselves. This is why they turned to fantasy, sci-fi and video games that can easily eat up 40 hours in a week. They turned because they were outcasts. They could find no place in the real world so they turned to fictional worlds finding more of a home amongst their fantasies than they ever had in reality. This is the fundamental difference between the old geek and the new shinier version. The old geek would follow entertainment which allowed them to escape the real world whereas the new geek follows entertainment to advance in the real world.

The old geek wasn't after knowledge for the sake of others. No one was going to be impressed by how many times you'd read the Silmarillion. This was information you kept to yourself unless you happened to be in the company of the other outcasts who would be impressed by this knowledge. Still that wasn't why said geek was rereading the book or trying to memorize the Quenya alphabet. They were doing it to numb the endless boredom of long nights and weeks spent alone. It was something done because it had to be done. It was a show of obedience to one's nature. The same nature that prevented one from taking a place in the real world.

This is why the new geek has me tearing my hair out. To see this ultimately pathetic pursuit turned into a marketing device makes me sick. To see the people who were too dense to associate with the old geek throw on the trappings and make their way through the world on the backs of old geeks everywhere pisses me off no end. This is why I can't stand hearing the g-word anymore. Not the way it's used today. Because every time I hear it I'm seeing these poor schmucks waiting for acceptance from society which is not going to come. The old geeks will always be as they have been. There will just be a new word to describe them. And I'll be sitting here feeling terrible for them and hating the opportunists that have stolen what glory should have been theirs.